School is the Worst Thing Ever
by peppermintstrawberrygum
Summary: Sasori is going to a new, all boys school. He expects it to be just like the previous school he went too. But strange things start to happen and before he knows it, he's dragged into the mysteries of the past. AU, eventually DeiSasoDei, Rated T to be safe
1. Introductions

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, this is a fan fiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. **

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School is the Worst Thing Ever  
Chapter one

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Class, this is Akasuna no Sasori, I hope everyone will be nice to him since this is his first day."  
A short, red-haired boy stood before the classroom, his maroon eyes looking bored.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi, your English teacher, please sit down next to…"  
The mask-wearing teacher looked around for a moment and pointed at a boy with short, brown hair which looked like it hadn't been brushed for quite some time and two red triangles on his face, "Inuzuka Kiba."

The boy who's name had been called looked up and groaned.

Sasori could feel everyone's eyes burn into his back when he walked to his desk. As the teacher started to write on the  
blackboard he could hear other boys whisper to each other.

This was the beginning of his first day at his new school, an all-boys school.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Hey," a voice called as the redhead sat down at a table in the cafeteria.  
Maroon eyes looked up to see a couple of boys walking towards him. "Who are you and why are you sitting at our table?"

He looked at them and said in a bored tone of voice, "I am who I am and I believe this table is the school's property, therefore I can sit here as long as I wish and you won't be able to do anything about it. Now please move away and do not bother me again, I hate wasting my time with brats like you."

The boys looked at him, confused looks on their faces. They hadn't expected a reply like that from a boy at least a head smaller than them.

"Well we usually sit there!" exclaimed one of the boys, probably the 'leader' of their little group.  
Sasori picked a book out of his backpack and started reading, completely ignoring the other boys.

When one of them asked something along the lines of "Are you even listening!?" he glared at them and said with the same tone voice as before, "Could you _please_ leave now, I'm trying to read and we wouldn't want any 'accidents' to happen, now do we?"

The boys looked at each other and slowly backed away.  
He wasn't disturbed for the rest of the lunch break.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

His first school day was pretty normal. He talked to no one, and no one talked to him, and that was the way he liked things. Silent and peaceful. He had almost thought some 'guardian angel' was giving him good luck. Almost.

His luck seemed to change the very second he walked through the door of the building he called 'home'…

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Sasori-chan, how was school today?" asked his grandmother's voice. There she was, standing in the hallway, wearing her old, dull dress she always wore.

He forced a smile to appear on his face as he said, "It was fun, I really like the others!"  
His grandmother smiled, "I'm glad…"

After that she asked him a few questions, if he felt alright and what he wanted for dinner. He smiled sweetly and answered politely, though as soon as he was upstairs in his room his smile melted away. It was not that he hated the old lady, she was just tiring, asking meaningless things all the time.

In his opinion women always did useless things, and asking too many questions was one of them. He sat down and started doing his homework. At least he didn't have to deal with her questioning until dinner.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

The following days were rather quiet too. No one dared to disturb him at school. He didn't care though, he thought most of the kids were just a bunch of idiots.

At home he tried to stay in his room most of the time in order to avoid his grandmother.  
Everything went well, until one day, during the lunch break…

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Hey," a boy sat down at the table where he was sitting, reading. "You're new here, right?"  
He nodded without looking up from his book, "Yes."

"You know, it's rude to not have eye contact when someone is talking to you, hm." He could hear the other boy smile as he said those words.  
Sasori sighed and looked up from his book, "This better?"  
The boy had rather long blonde hair, which fell over half his face. His azure-blue eye was gleaming mischievously and he was _grinning _at him, something no one had done so far at his new school.  
He put his elbows on the table and placed his head in his hands, still grinning. "Yeah, much better."

Sasori went back to reading, but he could feel the other staring at him, watching him like a hawk.  
"Could you stop doing that," he said with a calm voice, though he wasn't feeling calm at the moment.  
He knew without looking that the grin grew larger, "Stop doing what, hm?"

"Annoying me."  
"What am I doing that is annoying you?"

He put down the book and glared at the blonde, "Staring at me."  
A shrug, "I don't know, yeah, I kind of like looking at you."

"Well I don't like looking at you," Sasori shot back.  
The blonde shrugged again and replied calmly, "Then go back to reading your book, yeah, you don't _have_ to look at me, you know."

He wanted to beat the guy up, strangle him and maybe even kill him, but instead he went back to reading. After all, it was a waste of time talking to some stupid brat. Eventually someone called the blonde, and he stood up to leave.  
"I'll see you around, yeah," he said with a grin before walking away.

Only a few minutes later did he realize that the blonde never told him his name. He hadn't told him anything about himself, at all. Instead of being relieved that he could finally read in peace again, he was angry because some brat who didn't even know _his_ name sat down in front of him and started talking to him.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"…and that would be it for today, class. Don't forget to do your homework."  
Sasori stood up and gathered his things. He was more than happy to leave class, not because he hated biology, no, he just disliked the teacher, Orochimaru.

Not that he had done anything harmful to him, but something in his smile, or maybe it was the way he talked, or looked, was just a bit creepy. He was about to walk out the classroom when the teacher's voice stopped him.

"Ah, Sasori-kun, could you come here for a moment?"  
He inwardly thought of a few gruesome ways to kill the teacher, but walked back to him anyway.

"Yes, sensei?" he asked with fake politeness. The man reminded him of a snake, with his yellow-greenish eyes. He himself wasn't exactly fond of snakes.  
"Are you feeling alright, Sasori-kun? You seemed to be a bit… distracted."

He coldly looked at the teacher, "Why should I tell you how I feel? Now if you'd excuse me, I have to leave. " He turned around and walked out the classroom without looking back.

In the hallways he could hear rumors about him being spread.

"Look… It's the new kid… I've heard that he's really a robot in disguise…"  
"He looks so emotionless, I wonder if he knows how to smile…"  
"Freaky, isn't he? I bet he's really a murder machine or something…"

And for the first time the rumors seemed to irritate him.  
But no matter how much he wanted to tell everyone that 'yes, he did have human emotions, thank you very much' and that 'no, he wasn't a robot' he just quickened his pace and tried not to listen to the false rumors.

Once outside the building he took a deep breath to calm his mind. They were just rumors, nothing more or less. Just stupid, false rumors. They didn't know him, they couldn't judge him. It didn't matter what they thought. He shook his head slightly and started to walk the way home.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

The next day during art class he noticed something, or rather, someone. The blonde who had talked to him was sitting a few desks away from him. He tried to ignore him, but during the last few minutes of class he got a note from him. 'Wanna skip out of biology?' it read.

Sasori didn't have to think twice. Seeing that he wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing Orochimaru again, he wrote back, 'Okay'.

He'd probably regret it later, he thought to himself, but it was worth it.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

After a few more notes art class was over and he was walking towards one of the emergency exit, as stated in the notes. He went outside and followed the directions he got from one of the notes. Soon enough he spotted the blonde and sat down next to him.

"Hey, good to see you found the secret place for class skipping, yeah," the blonde said grinning.  
The redhead raised an eyebrow, "Secret place for class skipping?"  
"Yeah, that's what we call it around here, almost everyone knows of this spot, except for the teachers."

They were sitting between the bushes and trees, hidden from the outer world. It was indeed a good spot to hide from people.  
"Why did you ask me to join you?" he asked the blonde after a while.

A shrug, "I don't know, I heard a rumor -" At that point Sasori wanted to stop listening, thinking that he'd start about rumors made up about him.  
"- that Orochimaru has an eye on you…" the other finished.  
The statement made him stop thinking about the rumors made up about himself.

"He has a what!?" Sasori exclaimed, shocked and disgusted at the thought of that creepy, snaky teacher _liking_ him.  
"Yeah, well, that's what I heard… I've also heard a rumor that him and you were kissing in the toilet, but I kind of find that hard to believe," the blonde continued.

"Me and… and that… that absolutely horrible teacher!?" Sasori stammered, wondering what other rumors there were about him.  
The blonde nodded, "Yeah. And the other rumors I've heard about you, well… those are just rumors, I think. Stupid nonsense, hm."

He grinned at the redhead, "You'd be surprised at how many rumors they made up about me!"  
Sasori nodded, listening only half to what the other was saying.  
"Sickening…" he muttered. The blonde stopped talking and was silent for a moment.

Then he looked at him, "Yeah… I know, but there's nothing anyone can do, because there isn't any evidence." He grinned once again, "But it could just be a rumor, you know how kids are these days!"  
There was another silence.  
"Just… Be careful, 'kay?"

He nodded, "But why are you telling me this? You don't even know me?"  
The blonde's face grew serious, "Maybe I'm telling you this because no one else will." He grinned again and held out his hand.

"I'm Deidara, yeah," he said.  
The redhead shook the hand, "Sasori." He hesitated a moment. "Thanks… for telling me."  
"No problem, hm!"

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"When are you going to realize that art is meant to be eternal," Sasori hissed at Deidara.  
The blonde shook his head, "You're the one mistaken here, how can something be art when it's always the same thing?"

Other boys stopped with what they were doing to look at the two who were currently have a disagreement about art in the middle of the hallway. Some of them seemed to like the situation, others not so.

It had been two days ago that he first skipped out of biology with Deidara, who also didn't like Orochimaru very much. But since they had already skipped out of biology twice, Sasori thought it was time to go to class. Hiding because of some rumors was stupid, in his opinion.

During the two times they sat behind the bushes he had found out that Deidara liked art. That was alright, but when he found out the blonde thought blowing things up was _true art _he had almost choked on his own saliva.

"That's why it's true art, you idiot. You can look at it forever," he said for what felt like the millionth time.  
Deidara frowned disapprovingly, "I respect that everyone has a unique view on things, but art is not eternal. It's a bang!"  
The argument could have continued for hours if they didn't have to go to class.

When Sasori saw the classroom door he shut his mouth and quietly walked to his desk. He looked up to see if Orochimaru had seen him, but thankfully he was talking to another student.

"Ah, I see Deidara decided to join us today," he heard him say with his nearly snaky voice.  
Said blonde looked up with a scowl on his face.  
"Yeah, I was hoping to see someone else today, hm," he said in a cheery voice, though his eyes were dark.

Orochimaru licked his lips, "Oh? Is that so? Then I must disappoint you, I'm still the biology teacher."  
He turned around and started to write on the blackboard, "Anyway class, please open your book on page 36."

Finally, after what seemed to be hours and hours, the lesson was over.  
He quickly gathered his things and stood up. His blood ran cold as he looked into Orochimaru's eyes.

"Sasori-kun, I couldn't help but notice your absence the past two lessons… I'd like an explanation," the man said, his eyes narrowing slightly.  
"Where I was during the lessons is my business and not yours, now if you'd excuse me, I have to leave."

The redhead tried to walk out the classroom but a hand gripping his arm stopped him.  
He spun around and tried to jerk his arm free, "Let go of me this instance."

Orochimaru looked at him as he released the boy's arm.  
"Calm down," he said with an almost soothing voice. Sasori took a few steps backwards and glared at the teacher. After that he quickly walked out the classroom.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

The moon shone upon the houses, a dark figure was standing in front of one of them.  
His pearl white teeth gleamed as he chuckled softly, "Akasuna no Sasori, you sure are an interesting person…"

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

Sasori gripped the straps of his backpack tighter as he looked around him.  
He quickened his pace. The reason why was simple, he felt like someone was watching him, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't find anyone.

He could have sworn he heard someone walk behind him, but when he looked all he could find was a cat sitting in a garden, looking at a few birds in a tree.

The school finally got into view. Sasori let out a breath in relieve as he walked through the double doors and made his way towards the lockers.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

During the lunch Sasori didn't see Deidara. In fact, he hadn't seen him all day.

This got him wondering about what the blonde had told him a few days ago. What kind of rumors where there spread about him when he first came to the school? Did he do bad things? Beat someone up? Explode the chemistry-lab? His train of thoughts was stopped when someone sat down at the table.

He hoped for a split second that that person was Deidara, but when he looked up he saw that he was wrong.  
A boy, around his age, with short, spiky blond hair and strange, whisker like marks on his cheeks had sat down with a rather sad look on his face.

"You… mind if I sit here?" the boy asked softly, avoiding his eyes.  
Sasori didn't reply right away. He looked at the other boy's eyes. Blue. And sad.  
"I don't mind, but even if I did mind, I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. The chair you're sitting on in property of the  
school."

The other boy looked up with a look of surprise on his face, "Really? But I'm one of 'them'… The monsters…" The last few words were merely a whisper.  
"The monsters?" the redhead asked, closing the book in his hands. He wasn't reading it anyway - couldn't concentrate.

Blue eyes looked at him, a shocked look on the boy's face, "You haven't heard of them?"  
He shook his head, "No. I'm not from around here, I moved here a few days ago."

A silent 'oh' fell from the boy's mouth. "You're the new student…"  
He nodded and said in a calm voice, "Yes, I most certainly am the new student."  
"Then… You probably shouldn't talk to me, I'm bad luck. It would be best if I'd go now…"

Sasori shook his head slightly, "I'd like to know more about those 'monsters' you said you were one of. But first of all, I'd like to know your name."  
The other boy swallowed, "Well okay then… I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and… I have a demon inside of me… One of nine, to be exact. The tailed beasts…"

Sasori looked at the boy. He had heard of the tailed beasts, but had always thought they were just a myth.  
It did explain the facial marks.  
"So… I'm bad luck, you know? I have the nine-tails locked up inside me, and that's why everyone avoids me," Naruto said.  
There was a silence.

"I should really go," Naruto said, looking around nervously. Again Sasori shook his head.  
"Why should you go? You have just as much right as everyone else in this school to sit here."  
Naruto bit his lip. The redhead went back to reading.

"I don't have any parents," the other boy said suddenly.  
Sasori looked up from his book and blinked once, "That's something we have in common, then."  
They didn't say a word after that until the end of the lunch break. Naruto was the first to stand up.

"Bye," he said, pausing a moment before adding, "and thanks, for… you know, talking to me."  
Sasori put away his book and nodded slightly, "You're welcome."  
The other boy looked happier than before, he noted as he walked to his next class.

Still, it had been a quite strange conversation. How could he be sure that Naruto hadn't lied about having one of the mythical tailed beasts inside of him? He found the answer within mere seconds; he couldn't.  
Sasori shrugged mentally, what did it matter? At least the boy hadn't annoyed him.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

It was the end of the school day and Sasori was standing by his locker, getting all his books.  
As he started to put all the books in his backpack, someone leaned on the locker next to his.

"Yo," Deidara said, grinningly, as the redhead looked at him.  
"Where were you?" he snapped at the blonde, "I didn't see you all day!"

At first Deidara looked a bit surprised, but a few moments later his usual grin returned.  
"Oh, you been worried 'bout me? Missed me, yeah?" he asked.  
"Tch," Sasori crossed his arms, "No. Why would I ever worry about you, brat?"

Deidara frowned, "Hey now, I'm older than you… If anyone's a brat here, it'd be you."  
"Brat," the redhead said, putting the last books in his backpack.

They started walking toward the exit of the building. Most of the other students had already gone home, so the hallways were almost empty.  
Deidara was still frowning, Sasori noticed. When his frown turned into a grin he almost sighed - the idiot had probably thought of something new to annoy him with.

"So, if I'm the brat, would that make you 'Danna', the master, hm?" he asked.  
Yes, he most definitely had.

"What!?" Sasori yelped, surprised and a bit disturbed. "What in the world is that supposed to mean, brat!?"  
As response the blonde's grin grew even bigger, "Well, _Sasori-no-Danna_,it means since I'm the 'brat', you're the 'master'."

"Don't you ever call me that again," the younger boy said with a scowl on his face.  
"Call you what, Sasori-no-Danna, yeah?" Deidara asked, playing innocent.  
"That, brat."

"Well then, if you don't wanna be called Danna, _Sasori-no-Danna_, you'll have to stop calling me brat."  
He snorted, "You wish, brat."  
"Right, Sasori-no-Danna."

As they reached the double doors, the redhead couldn't help but ask, "Why did you decide to pay me a visit at the end of the day?"  
Deidara shrugged, "I have no idea, really, maybe I just wanted to talk to you."  
"Of course, you wanted to talk to me. The truth, brat."

The blonde sighed, "Alright, alright, I really don't understand my math homework. And because- well, you look like someone who is good at math, yeah."  
"What do you want?" Sasori asked.

"I would really like it if you'd do- err, I mean, help me with my math homework, hm," Deidara said.  
"And now give me one good reason why I should help you."  
There was a moment of silence before he got an answer.

"I'll umh… introduce you to my friends…?" Deidara said, scratching the back of his head.  
"You won't stop annoying me until I help you with your homework, am I right?"  
"…yeah."

Sasori closed his eyes and sighed softly, "It seems that you leave me no choice but to help you with your math homework."  
Deidara grinned victoriously, "I won."  
"Only because I happen to like math," Sasori said, shrugging.  
"And I don't, hm. So, where will we go to study?" the blonde asked.

Sasori stopped walking. Where? He didn't want his grandmother to ask irritating questions, but he didn't want the police to come look for him if he went to Deidara's home because his grandmother had gotten overly worried.  
"…the park," he said and resumed walking.  
"The park, yeah? 'kay, the park it is."

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

In the park they sat down at one of the wooden tables.  
Within thirty minutes Deidara's math homework was done.

Sasori had surprised himself by only losing his patience twice. It had almost seemed that the blonde wanted him to get mad, by asking the stupidest questions about the easiest problems.

"There," he said as Deidara wrote down the last answer, "That wasn't that hard, right?"  
The blonde grinned, "Nah, not really."

Sasori stood up and grabbed his backpack, "I have to go home now, bye."  
"See you tomorrow, yeah."

As he walked out the park he got the same feeling he'd had on his way to school.  
But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find anyone looking.  
Despite not finding anyone looking at him, he quickened his pace.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

Deidara had kept his promise and thus had introduced Sasori to his friends - a rather weird group of people.  
His friends, or 'the people I hang out with, hm', were three boys, all of them looked older than Sasori.

All of them looked rather… strange. The first one Deidara introduced was a tall boy with a slightly blue skin colour. Kisame.

The next one was Zetsu. Half his face was white, the other black, and both sides seemed to have a personality. The white side was gentle and kind, the black side rude and mean. And slightly insane, that too.

The third and last one was wearing a mask over half his face, Kakuzu. He seemed the most normal one, until he started asking questions about how much money Sasori had.

Deidara told him that Kakuzu was slightly obsessed with money. Sasori had nodded and mentally noted to never, ever give that guy money.

After hanging around with them for a while, he found out that they were actually quite likeable.

The next day he ignored the feeling that he was being watched.  
He still walked rather quickly and felt slightly relieved when he had reached his destination.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

End of Chapter

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**Authors Note: This is my first time writing and publishing a fan fiction, so I probably still have a lot to learn. I hope I'm doing this right…**  
**Also, English isn't my first language. If there are any mistakes I apologize.  
****If my story is similar to yours, I'm sorry. I don't copy anything from any story I read, because I think that's wrong, but people do have the same ideas sometimes.  
****Other than that, I hope you enjoyed reading this. Please let me know what you think. **

…**I'm nervous. Honestly.**


	2. Hansel and Gretel

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, this is a fan fiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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School is the Worst Thing Ever  
Chapter two

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"A school play?" Sasori asked, looking at the billboard hanging in the hall, near the lockers.  
Naruto nodded, "It's something the school does a few times every year."  
"Ah," the redhead looked at the bright piece of paper which read 'Hansel and Gretel'.

He then looked down at the letter he was holding, 'Dear student, you've been selected to play in the school play, Hansel and Gretel, as the Wicked Witch.'  
The letter continued with where the practice was going to be held and the time.

"Naruto-kun, how come I have a girl's role?" he asked, looking at the blonde boy.  
"Well, since there are no girls in this school, they choose boys to play those roles. I'm one of the black cats…" Naruto trailed off for a moment. "Anyway, they choose a couple of students who'll have to play in the play, even if they can't find a role for them. There is no script, the students have to make the story up themselves, so usually it ends up being rather different from the original fairytale. The students have one month to write the script, make the costumes and practice until the play."

Sasori nodded, "Okay. I'll see you later then."  
Naruto smiled happily, "Right. Later!"

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

When he walked in the room where they could practice, he was surprised yet slightly relieved to see a few familiar faces. Deidara, Kakuzu and Naruto, to be precise.  
There were other boys he had seen before, but never spoken to, and a few he didn't know.

A boy with silver hair was sitting near Deidara and grinning, "So, Deidara-chan, you gonna be Gretel? Really, they couldn't have found a better person!"

The blonde was glaring at the silver-haired boy.  
"…You wanna have children later in your life?" he asked darkly.

The other boy started laughing nervously while moving away from the blonde.  
Then he spotted Sasori and pointed at him, "Well look, it's the new student!"  
Oh dear. Everyone was looking at him. He had never really liked much attention…

Naruto stood up form where he was sitting and walked towards him, "Sasori-san, I'm glad to see you made it in time."  
He nodded slightly, "Yes." From the corner of his eyes he looked at Deidara.

The blonde was grinning and waved at him, "Hey Danna, you got a stupid role in this play too?"  
Again he nodded, "Yes. I am the 'wicked witch'."

The silver-haired boy laughed again, "Well look, Deidara-chan! I think your girly-ness is contagious!"  
Deidara looked as if he was about to jump up and really make sure the boy wouldn't have any children in his life, when Kakuzu stood up and sighed, "Hidan."

The silver-haired boy looked at him, "Yeah?"  
"If you don't shut up now I swear I will make you."  
Hidan gulped, "Shutting up now…"

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

Once everyone had calmed down a boy with brown hair stood up, "I think we should introduce ourselves. I'll go first, if that's alright."  
When no one disagreed the boy sighed, "Troublesome… We're sitting in a circle, we'll go round clockwise. I'm Nara Shikamaru and I feel like this is all too much work. Next."

As Shikamaru sat down a boy with long black hair stood up, "Uchiha Itachi." After that he sat down again.

Next Kakuzu stood up, "I'm Kakuzu, and the guy who's saying dumb things all the time is Hidan. I'm introducing him because if he opens his mouth all that comes out is stupid."  
Hidan let out a small 'hey', but didn't try to argue.

A boy with an round orange mask stood up, "Hi! I'm Tobi, Tobi is a good boy!"  
Deidara groaned, "Not him… Please tell me he isn't in the play…"  
"Oh, Deidara-Senpai! Don't you like Tobi? Tobi is a good boy," Tobi said, sounding a bit sad.

Kakuzu sighed, "We know you're a good boy, now shut up, sit down and let the next person talk. Your cheery voice is giving me a headache."  
Tobi sat down, "Yes Kakuzu-san! Tobi is a good-"  
"We know. For the love of all things living, shut up."

A boy with long, almost shining brown hair stood up, "I'm Hyuuga Neji, this -" he pointed at a boy with short black hair and rather big eyebrows, "- is Rock Lee. It is your destiny to accept the fact that I, Neji, am going to be the mother in this play and that Lee will be the father."  
He sat down, "Next."

A boy who looked a lot like Itachi stood up and said, "Uchiha Sasuke. I have no interest in friends. The only thing I care about is to get revenge… _That one man_…" He coldly looked at Itachi, who sighed.  
"Foolish little brother, how many times must I tell you that the goldfish was an accident?"

Sasuke accusingly pointed his finger at his older brother, "That might have been an accident, but Snowy the twelfth, the rabbit, wasn't, and neither was Snowy the tenth!"  
Kakuzu stood up again and shook his head, "Enough, you two. Sit down and let the next one introduce himself, time is money."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto."  
"Akasuna no Sasori."  
"Deidara, hm. For everyone's information, I am not a girl in disguise."

Hidan laughed, "Really? Could have fooled me! Maybe someone should check if you aren't lying."  
"Maybe someone should shut you up so bad you won't ever open your mouth again," Deidara snarled.  
"Next," Kakuzu said, rubbing his temples.

A boy with short black hair and a smile on his face stood up, "Hello everyone, my name is Sai. I hope we can all be good friends."  
Some nodded in agreement, others muttered otherwise.

Lastly a boy with messy brown hair stood up. Sasori remembered him, he had to sit next to him in his English class.  
"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, and I like dogs. I have one myself, his name is Akamaru and he's the smartest and coolest-"  
Kakuzu nodded, "Yes, right, right. Moving on. We have to make a script. Time is money, people, remember!"

They all sat down at a table. Kakuzu gave everyone a piece of paper and a pencil.  
"Now, first things first. We need to get everyone a role," he said.  
Everyone agreed and soon they were all busy thinking, plotting and writing.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"See you all tomorrow," Sai waved happily as he walked out the room.  
It had already been a week since they started. The script was almost done and the costumes were ready.  
All that was left was practice, practice and practice.

Sasori sighed, thankful that everything was still going smoothly. Even though Hidan was still pestering Deidara, and Sasuke and Itachi didn't seem to like each other, nothing seriously bad had happened.  
A punch in the face for Hidan wasn't that bad, it didn't even start bleeding.

"See ya tomorrow, Sasori-no-Danna."  
He stopped his thinking and looked up. Deidara was standing in the doorway, ready to leave.  
"Yes, I think so." The blonde grinned. Had he forgot something- ah, yes, he had. "And don't call me that, you brat!"

Deidara chuckled, "Yeah, right, Danna." Before Sasori could say something else he was gone.  
He frowned to himself, put on his backpack and left the room.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"I hope I'll get a good grade for this, hm," Deidara muttered as he continued to solve math problems.  
"For math? I sure hope so, otherwise this'll all be a waste of time," Sasori said.

They were in the park again.  
"No, I mean the play, yeah… With those two Uchiha's in it nothing will go right."  
The redhead turned a page of his book, "Really? What's wrong with those two then?"

Deidara looked him in the eyes, "They're stuck up assholes, that's what. I bet they don't care if the play goes wrong, because they are from the _oh-so great_ Uchiha family. Their dad is the boss at the police station, and too many others of their family work there as well."

"What's wrong with their dad being the boss at the police station?" Sasori asked closing his book half.  
The blonde shrugged as he finished the last problem, "Nothing. Just that they don't ever do anything wrong, yeah."

"If their dad is the boss of the police station, and they can't do anything wrong, then I'm sure the teachers will give us all a good grade," Sasori put the book in his backpack. "Bye."

Deidara looked up, surprised, "What? Oh, I'm done. Yeah, see you, Danna."

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Another week passed, and everything seemed to go according to plan, until…

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Where is the script?" Kakuzu yelled angrily. "Who took it?"  
No one answered, shocked by how Kakuzu was yelling at them.

"C-calm down, Kakuzu," Hidan said, "I don't think anyone knows where it is…"  
"Does it look like I care? If it's gone, it means that we lost time, and time is money!"

Tobi took a step forward and showed everyone a bunch of papers stapled together, "Tobi has a script… Tobi is a good boy."  
Kakuzu snatched it from Tobi's hands and quickly read it. "What's this piece of shit?"  
"Tobi doesn't know, Tobi found it, Tobi is a good boy," Tobi said, waving with his arms like a lunatic.

Everyone held their breaths.  
Kakuzu shook his head an sighed, "Well, I guess this could do… We don't have time to write a new one."

He gave it to Hidan, who's face paled while reading it. "The hell is this, Kakuzu?"  
"A script. Now, everyone will get to read it, and then we'll start practicing," Kakuzu said.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

After reading it everyone looked paler, except for the Uchiha siblings, who didn't show emotions easily.  
"I refuse," Itachi said, first to speak after reading the new script.

"You don't have a choice," Kakuzu said. "None of you have one. I will decide who'll get to play who, except for the ones who already have roles."

"W-wait a moment, Kakuzu!" Hidan said. "Why don't we all make decisions together? All who are in favor of Kakuzu choosing who will get which role, raise your hand."  
Neji, Deidara, Lee, Naruto, Kiba, Hidan, Shikamaru, Sasori and Tobi raised their hands.

"And those who are not in favor of Kakuzu choosing…"  
The only ones who raised their hands were Itachi and Sasuke.

Hidan looked at Sai, who was smiling. "You haven't raised your hand, why not?"  
"I wanted to see which choice would get most votes, and then join that group."

The silver-haired boy looked at him weirdly, "Strange kid."  
Sai smiled, "Thank you, intelligent one."  
"What the hell?" Hidan demanded, pointing his finger at him.

"Enough of that already," Kakuzu said, frowning, "We're going to practice now!"

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"I don't know what to think of this, Deidara-san," Sasori said.  
He was wearing a black dress and a pointy hat. It was supposed to make him look 'evil'.

"Shut up, Danna, hm, you're not the one wearing a pink princess dress."  
"Oh you brat, a dress is a dress," the redhead said, shaking his head slightly.

Sai walked up to them and smiled, "You two must be very close, using nicknames. Are you two 'in love'?"  
Deidara grabbed the closest object he could find, which happened to be one of Sasori's books, and threw at Sai, while yelling a few rather rude words at the boy.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Oh it hurts me greatly, foolish little Aurora, that you don't like my hair," Itachi said, without any emotion.  
"Would you shut up, Snow white, your whining is giving me a headache," Sasuke said, gritting his teeth.

"How about you two kiss and make up?" Sai suggested, smiling.  
Sasuke looked at him. "What did you just say," he hissed.

"Why don't you two kiss and make up," Sai repeated, still smiling that awfully sweet smile of his.  
Sasuke took a few steps forward, looked the other boy straight in the eye and kneed him in the groin.  
He looked almost satisfied when Sai doubled over onto the ground.

Within seconds one of the other boys sat down next to Sai and asked him if he was okay, while Kakuzu walked over to Sasuke, shaking his head.  
"Sasuke-kun, I understand that what Sai-kun said was out of line, but kicking him between the legs?"  
"He deserved it," Sasuke said, crossing his arms.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"And I quote, 'Hansel then kissed her and she woke up'. What the hell? I'm a Jashinist, it's against my religion to kiss someone before marriage!" Hidan shouted, pushing the script into Kakuzu's hands.  
"Like Itachi would say, I refuse! I'm not gonna do that, you go find someone else."

Kakuzu sighed, "Right, and I supposed you expect me to see someone appear right in front of me?"  
"Kakuzu-san, could you please tell Itachi-san that he has to do as the script says, yeah?" Deidara asked.

Hidan and Kakuzu looked at the blonde.  
"What, hm?"

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

As you can read, dear reader, practice was rather eventful and not without a few small problems.  
The weeks passed almost too fast, and before they actually knew it, it was the day of the play.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Wow… There must be many, many people coming to see the play," Naruto said as he put on his cat ears.  
Sasori nodded in agreement. Even though they couldn't see how many people there were, they could hear them talking to each other.

Deidara grinned, "At least none of my family will be there to see me in a dress, hm!"  
"Be glad," Sasuke said, "My family is here."  
The blonde shrugged, "Yeah, well, sucks to be you."

"Ten more minutes until the start," Kakuzu warned. "Is everyone almost done?"  
"No, almost! I can't get these heels to fit," Sasuke said, trying to put on his heels.

"Maybe Deidara-chan can help you with those, I bet he knows how to wear them," Hidan said.  
The blonde glared at Hidan, "Even if I did know, I wouldn't help him."

Sasuke looked at him coldly, "I don't need your help, I'm already done."  
"Everyone, get ready!"

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I'm Nara Shikamaru, the narrator. Troublesome… I hope everyone will enjoy the play as much as the actors will."  
The lights went out and when they were turned on again the stage had been turned into a small kitchen.

"Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a family," Shikamaru said.  
"There was a mother, a father and three children, Hansel, Gretel and… Stepsister. The father had lost his first wife and had remarried."

Deidara, Hidan and Kakuzu were sitting at the kitchen table and Neji was cooking when Lee walked into the kitchen.  
"My dear, dear youthful wife and my dear, dear youthful children! I have good news! We are officially rich!" he said, blowing a kiss towards Neji, who dodged it.

"That's good news father," Deidara said, "Now I'll be able to buy more make-up using the money I steal from you at night."  
Hidan grinned, "Yeah, you really need more make-up, 'cause you look horrible without it!"

"Let's celebrate by going into the woods," Kakuzu said.  
"Even better, don't you think, Gretel?"

Deidara glared at Hidan, "Yes, Hi-ansel. A very good idea."  
The lights went out again and Shikamaru continued speaking.

"That very evening they went into the woods, made a big campfire and sat around it, singing and celebrating. Gretel and Hansel were bored after a while, because father and mother only paid attention to Stepsister. They decided to wander around a bit."

The lights went back on. The kitchen had changed into a forest.  
"Oh Hansel, I am so glad we lost those old people," Deidara said. "They were so boring,"

Hidan held up a piece of bread, "Yeah, right, how about we leave a trail of bread crumbs? Dad still owes me money."  
"You are such a genius," Deidara said, sounding very sarcastic.  
The silver-haired boy started throwing around chunks of bread, "I know!"

"Hansel might have been a genius, but his plan failed. A creature came and ate all the bread."

Tobi came onto stage, crawling on all fours, collecting the chunks of bread.  
"So much for you being a genius, yeah," Deidara said, hitting Hidan in the face.

Hidan rubbed his cheek, "That wasn't in the script, Dei- Gretel-chan!"  
"Well now it is, hm!"  
"You know what, you little son of a- Ow!" Hidan was cut of by a piece of bread hitting his head.  
He looked behind him and saw that it had been Kakuzu who had throw it.

Shikamaru coughed audibly and the lights went off again, "Anyway, they wandered around until they found a house made of candy. Hungry from all the walking, they started damaging the house by eating it. However, they hadn't thought about the person who lived in the house."

The lights went back on, revealing half a house. The house was two walls and some dark furniture.  
Hidan was kicking one of the walls while Deidara was backing away from him.

Inside Sasori was sitting on a chair, petting Naruto, one of his black cats, who was laying at his feet.  
The other cat, played by Kiba, was standing at the door, barking madly.  
"Woof, witch-woman, someone is eating the house! Woof!"

Sasori stood up, walked around slowly, grabbed his broom and opened the door.  
"You," he pointed at Deidara.  
"Are you eating my house?" the redhead asked, sounding bored.

Deidara shook his head, "No, no, no, he-" he pointed his finger at Hidan, "- is, and I'm not related to that idiot!"

Sasori turned his head slowly and looked at Hidan. "You. Are you eating my house?"  
"Shit no! If it tastes the way it smells, I'll be dead before it reaches my stomach," Hidan said, kicking the wall again.

"Well what do you expect, I saved all that food for years," Sasori said, calmly.  
His eyes darkened, "And you are destroying my work of art. Now I'll have to punish you."  
Sasori walked over to Hidan and started hitting him with his broom, "You brat, how dare you! Do you have any idea how many years it took me to save all that food? Do you? I'll tell you, forty-four long years!"

"Ow, ow! Ghee, old woman, stop hitting me!" Hidan cried, trying to get away from the broom.  
Deidara shook his head, "No, hit him, hit him!"

"You're right," Sasori said, no longer hitting Hidan. "This punishment is way too soft."  
He stood on his toes and grabbed Hidan's ear, "You're coming with me."

As he started dragging the silver-haired boy into the house he looked at Deidara, "And you too!"  
"Me, yeah? I'm not even related to him, really! Why should I come too?" the blonde asked.  
Sasori tilted his head a little, "Don't you want to see him suffering?"  
"Okay, I'm coming, yeah!"

They all went inside, where Kiba bit Hidan's leg.  
"Hey, shit-face, lemme go!" Hidan shouted at the 'cat'.  
Kiba let him go and spit in his face, "With pleasure, you taste like rotten eggs."  
"Oh, he's rotten alright," Deidara said, grinning.

Sasori walked towards a cage, pulling Hidan with him. "Stay," he told the boy as he let go of him.  
"Hey, don't treat me like I'm some sort of dog," Hidan said, and almost instantly Kiba was sitting in front of him.  
The redhead shrugged and stood on his toes again, this time trying to open the lock of the cage.

After a few failed attempts Deidara walked over to him, "Is something wrong?"  
Sasori turned around and looked him in the eyes.  
"I can't reach the lock. You open it."

The blonde unlocked the cage and Sasori pulled Hidan's ear again, who was currently have a staring contest with Kiba.  
He pushed the silver-haired boy into the cage and closed the door. Again he stood on his toes and tried to lock the cage, but again it didn't work.

"You do it," he said, pointing at Deidara. The blonde shrugged and locked the cage.  
"What are you going to do with him?" he asked Sasori.  
The redhead shrugged, "Eat him."  
"Cool."

The audience booed, making Deidara turn around and look at them. "What? You want me to start crying?"  
When sounds of approval came from the audience he sighed, "Right…"  
He fell to his knees and grabbed the bottom of Sasori's black dress.

"Oh boohoo, please, don't do that to him, I care soo-hoo much about him!"  
Sasori rolled his eyes, "No."  
Deidara got up from the ground and glared at the audience, "Happy now?"

"Gretel was actually enjoying her time with the Wicked Witch, as she later found out her name was. They played board games most of the time, and ignored Hansel. Thankfully one of the cats fed him by spitting food through the bars of the cage door."

A yell came from the stage as Kiba threw food into the cage.

"Everything went well, until one day the Wicked Witch decided to clean out Hansel's cage."

Sasori stood up from the chair he was sitting on, "We should clean out what's-his-name's cage. It's starting to smell."  
Deidara nodded in agreement.

"Have you two forgotten my name?" Hidan asked.  
"No, we just like calling you everything but your name, hm."  
Deidara unlocked the cage and Sasori made sure Kiba would watch over Hidan.  
But they didn't notice that Hidan had poked Kiba in the eyes until he had picked Sasori up.

"Bwahahaha," he laughed, evilly, "Now is the time for my revenge!"  
And without any more words he shoved Sasori into the oven and put a dog collar around Deidara's neck.  
"Dear sister, I'm going to sell you to some barbarians!"

Deidara stared at him.  
"What?" Hidan asked, a bit disturbed.  
"I forgot my text," the blonde said simply.

Hidan blinked twice, "Oh, you were supposed to say something like 'Oh no, what ever have I done to make you hate me so much', but that's something artists or others pansies say."  
Deidara kicked him against the shin, "Oh no, you just killed the witch and called me an effeminate guy!"

Shikamaru coughed again, "And then a fairy came, hit Hansel on the head making him loose consciousness and brought the witch back to life."

Tobi came onto stage again, this time wearing a fairy outfit. He hit Hidan on the head with his pink staff, threw around some pink roses and opened the oven door.  
Sasori crawled out and frowned, "I hate pink."

"Umh, yes, the Wicked Witch hates pink. She chased the fairy away with her broom. When she came back inside the house Gretel had put the collar on Hansel and was jumping up and down happily."

Deidara looked horrified, "You've gotta be kidding me…"  
Sasori shrugged , grabbed his broom and started chasing Tobi away.

When he came back into the house Deidara was indeed jumping up and down, but not happily.  
"Oh joy of joys, we won a trip around the world," he stated, sounding everything but joyful.  
The lights went off again.

"They started packing their things, ready to leave behind everything for who-knows how long. They left the cats behind to take care of the house. After a few days of traveling they arrived at the first of many big cities they'd visit during their traveling. When they heard there was a princess asleep in the castle, who couldn't be woken up, and because her prince refused to kiss her, seeing that he was actually in love with himself, Hansel- huh? There's something scribbled here in some horrible handwriting, a moment please, ladies and gentlemen…"

Shikamaru resumed talking after a moment, "I'm sorry for the mistake, Gretel, not Hansel, proposed to visit the castle, because she really wanted to see the princess. And so they ended up in the princesses' bedroom, where she was peacefully sleeping, oblivious of the world around her."

The lights went back on. The stage had been changed into a rather pink bedroom. Sasori, Deidara and Hidan were standing next to the bed, looking at Sasuke, who was sleeping in it.  
"…umh," the blonde muttered.

Hidan elbowed him, "What are you waiting for, say your text already!"  
"Problem here, I forgot it again, yeah…"  
"What are you, blonde or something?"

For that remark Hidan got hit on the head with a pillow, "Shut up!"  
He started laughing, "What, trying to hurt me with a pillow, Deida- I mean, Gretel-chan? Oh boohoo, it hurts sooo much!"  
Sasori hit Hidan with his broom, "You're supposed to say 'What a beautiful princess', remember?"

Deidara nodded, "Right… Oh, what a beautiful princess! It's a shame she's asleep, yeah. I wonder why she isn't waking up."  
The silver-haired boy snickered, "Why don't you kiss her and see what happens?"  
Sasuke's eyebrow twitched.

"What? No way, no way am I kissing that bastard," Deidara stated, crossing his arms. "It's not in the script."  
Shikamaru shook his head, "It is. Troublesome… Just kiss him on the cheek or something…"  
The blonde muttered a few profanities and leaned down to kiss Sasuke's cheek.

Everything would have gone right if Hidan hadn't decided to push Deidara's head down onto Sasuke's, making their lips lock.  
There was a moment of silence before they quickly moved away from each other.

Sasuke sat up and started coughing madly. Deidara wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.  
"Gross," he muttered.

Sasuke nodded, "That was the most horrible thing that ever happened to me in my life besides _that one man_!"  
Hidan shook his head, "That was absolutely awesome, two guys acting like girls, kissing!"

They both looked at the silver-haired boy.  
"Oh Hidan," Deidara began, his voice sickeningly sweet.  
"You wanna know how we think about this?" Sasuke finished.

They walked towards Hidan, who was backing away, until he tripped over Sasori's broom.  
"Oh shit," he said, looking at Deidara and Sasuke, who were closing in on him rapidly.  
The lights got turned off.

"Ow-ow-ow! Hey, can't we talk about thi- That's not supposed to bend that way! Shit, Kakuzu, help me!"  
"No. We don't have time for that. Finish beating him up and continue the play."  
"Kakuzu, you bastard, I'll make you pay for this! Ow!"

When the lights were turned back on Hidan was no longer on stage.  
"Thank you for waking me up," Sasuke said, not sounding very grateful. "My name is Aurora and I-"  
He got cut of by Itachi and Sai, who walked onto stage.

"Hello foolish little Aurora," Itachi said, flipping his hair. Sai waved smilingly.  
Sasuke tried to kick Itachi, but tripped over his heels and fell to the ground.

"Snow white, you…" he hissed, glaring at the older Uchiha.  
"What-ever have I done for you to hate me so much, foolish little Aurora?" he asked. "Is it that my hair is prettier than yours?"  
Sasuke stood up and shook his head, "No, I hate it."

"Oh it hurts me greatly, foolish little Aurora, that you don't like my hair," Itachi said, emotionless.  
"Would you shut up, Snow white, your whining is giving me a headache," Sasuke said, glaring.

Sai smiled and stepped in-between the two, "Oh, so many violent words, can't we solve this peacefully?"  
"No," the Uchiha brothers said simultaneously.

Sasuke glared at Itachi, pointed at him with his finger and said, "I declare a magical-girl-battle!"  
"I accept," Itachi answered, flipping his hair again.

Tobi ran onto the stage, threw some more roses around while Itachi and Sasuke slipped out of their dresses, revealing that they were wearing mini-tops and skirts underneath, Itachi in yellow-red-blue, Sasuke in pink.  
When they were done Tobi quickly ran off of the stage again.

"Magical-eye-attack!" Sasuke yelled, staring at Itachi with murderous intent in his eyes.  
"Foolish little Aurora, your attack lacks hatred. Magical-eye-of-doom-attack."

Sasuke fell to his knees, "No, not the magical-eye-of-doom-attack! I have no power left to fight you…"  
Sai skipped over to him, "Want me to kiss it better?"  
The younger Uchiha punched him in the face, "No."

Deidara wrinkled his nose, "No power left my ass."  
"Shut up," Sasuke yelled at the blonde, "I'm only saying what's in the script!"

"Eh… After Aurora lost to Snow white they…" Shikamaru stopped reading.  
"There's something scribbled here again, I apologize ladies and gentlemen."  
He resumed reading, "They decided to have a tea party."

The lights went out, but not before Sasuke shot a glare at Shikamaru.  
"Many, many people were invited, and everyone came over to the party, because they were afraid of what would happen if they didn't. Snow white and Aurora weren't the most forgiving people."

The lights went back on again. The stage had been changed into a ballroom.  
Sasuke and Itachi were back into their dresses. Tobi was standing in the middle of the stage, with white bunny ears on his head.  
"Tea-time," he shouted, "Tobi-rabbit says tea-time!"  
All the others actors came onto stage dressed in formal, even Hidan with some extra make-up on his face.

"The tea-party was a success, everyone had a great time and most importantly Hansel and Gretel saw their parents again."

Deidara and Hidan stared at Neji and Lee, shocked in a not good way.  
"Mom, dad? What the heck are you two doing here?" the blonde asked.  
"It is your destiny to come home with us," Neji said. Lee nodded with a smile and gave them a thumbs up.

"And so they went back home, taking the Wicked Witch with them. Hansel married Snow white, Gretel married a talking mirror and the Wicked Witch remained single. And so everyone was happy, except for maybe Aurora. After the tea party the Wicked Witch hit her with her broom, so she fainted and has had a headache ever since, and without a prince to kiss it better Aurora locked herself up in her castle room. The End."

The audience clapped their hands as the actors took their bows and walked of stage.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Thank goodness that's over now, yeah," Deidara sighed, pulling his hair up into his usual high ponytail.  
Everyone else nodded in agreement, except for Tobi- where was Tobi anyway?

Sasori looked around in the changing room, but the good boy was nowhere to be seen.  
He shrugged it off, maybe he was just quick in changing clothes.  
"I bet principal Tsunade will be waiting for us to finish changing so she can tell us her opinion about the play," Kakuzu said, not sounding very thrilled.

Almost every boy in the room groaned unhappily, "Not her!"  
"What's wrong with principal Tsunade?" Sasori asked.  
Deidara looked at him, "You haven't seen her yet?"

He shook his head, "My grandmother did, but I didn't."  
"Here's advice, whatever you do, don't stare. She'll notice if you do and the consequences aren't pretty…"  
The redhead frowned, wondering what kind of woman the principal would be.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

Blond hair, light brown-golden eyes and a rather large bosom - Principal Tsunade.  
Sasori understood why the others had warned him not to stare, the woman looked like she wasn't afraid to punish anyone who did, but honestly, that wasn't something that interested him in any way.

"I saw the play, and I must say, good job. It was rather humorous and different from the original fairy tale, but I enjoyed watching it," the principal said, smiling.  
"Thought I was wondering if it was all in the script, some parts looked like bloopers…"

Deidara shook his head, "It was all in the script, because Kakuzu wanted something that could make people laugh." Hidan and Sasuke nodded quickly.

Tsunade laughed warmly, "Well then, great acting it all out so realisticly!"  
She looked at Sasori, "Even though you weren't on the stage all the time, you did a great job at playing the Wicked Witch."  
The redhead nodded, "Yes. Thank you."

Tsunade told a few others they played their roles well and then left.

Once she was gone, Hidan looked at Sasori. "Dude, you didn't seem to have any trouble not staring!"  
The redhead shrugged, "I don't really care about women. They do useless things."

"Even so, how can you not stare? I mean, they're huge!" Hidan exclaimed.  
"No wonder you and Deidara-chan have no problems talking to each others," he added.

Both Deidara and Sasori looked at him, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, he doesn't have any trouble not staring too. Probably because he's totally gay, and you too- Ow!"  
Sasori was pulling Hidan's ear, hard, and Deidara had kicked him against the shin.

The silver haired boy looked at Sasori, "Why aren't you standing on your toes?"  
He shrugged, "Just because the witch was small, doesn't mean I am. In fact, I can easily do this."  
"Ow-ow, okay! If you two aren't totally gay, what are you then?" Hidan asked.

Deidara crossed his arms, "Bi, and you know it."  
"Ni," Sasori said calmly.  
Hidan looked at him, "Ni? What's that?"  
"Not. Interested."

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

End of Chapter

* * *

**Authors Note: This chapter was a lot of fun to write, so I hope you'll all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it! I'm sorry for the wait, but I entered this chapter into a contest, 'Rewrite Hansel and Gretel'. I didn't want to post this before the contest entries were posted, because it just felt wrong to do so. I wonder if I'll win - probably not.  
****So umh… Please tell me what you think of it?**


	3. Relationships

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, this is a fan fiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. **

* * *

School is the Worst Thing Ever  
Chapter three

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"Sasori-chan, I got a phone call from one of the teachers," his grandmother said, giving him a cup of tea.

She sat down on the chair facing him with her own cup.  
"Umino Iruka, do you know who he is?" she asked.

He nodded slightly, stirring his tea. He had heard of that teacher.

"He wanted me to tell you he's glad that you and… What was the name again?" Chiyo thought for a moment. "Haruko?"  
"Naruto," he corrected her.

"I already thought it was a strange name for a boy," his grandmother muttered to herself. "Anyway, his teacher called and he told me to thank you for becoming friends with him. Ever since the two of you have become friends he's been talking to many other students and has a growing number of friends now."

Sasori nearly choked on his tea. Friends? All he did was talk to Naruto, and not even everyday.  
That didn't make them friends, right? Because if it did, that would mean he'd also be friends with almost every single teacher on his school, including that horrible Orochimaru, who he disliked greatly.  
And many of his classmates, too.

"Sasori-chan? Are you alright? You've just gone awfully quiet…"  
"I'm fine, Chiyo-baa," he answered, faking a smile onto his face.

His grandmother smiled back at him, "Okay then. Other than that teacher calling, my friends are coming over this weekend. Do you have any plans for the weekend?"

Sasori didn't have any plans, but he wasn't looking forward to having to drink tea with his grandmother's friends, while they would call him 'the cutest thing alive' or 'the adorable little grandson'.  
Not that he didn't like tea - he really liked it - his grandmother's friends were just a bunch of old ladies.

"Actually, yes, I do have something planned for this weekend, Chiyo-baa."  
It was obviously a lie.  
"Someone from school?" his grandmother asked.

"Yes." What else was he to say, 'no, I lied, I just don't want to see your friends again'?  
"A friend?"  
He nodded, "A friend." Of course. A friend. Like he had any.

Chiyo smiled, "I'm glad to see you're making friends again. You know how worried I got when you didn't at the previous school you went to…"  
Sasori nodded again and finished his cup of tea. "I have to go do the rest of my homework now."

His grandmother nodded as he stood up, "I'll see you at dinner, Sasori-chan."

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

Once upstairs he sat down on his bed. Great, what had he gotten himself into this time?  
Now he had to really do something in the weekend with someone from school.

He fell onto his back and looked at the ceiling, trying to come up with a solution.

There was Naruto, but he would probably do something with his friends.  
Besides, he was two classes lower than he, he probably wouldn't want to hang out with him anyway.

Then there was Deidara, but- No. And hadn't he said something about having a weekend job?  
Maybe one of his friends? Decisions, decisions…

He sat up again. He really should do the rest of his homework.

Tomorrow it would be Friday. That should give him enough time to think of a solution.  
All he needed to do was make sure he'd be out the house on Saturday, from 9:00 to 19:00.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Naruto-kun, what are you going to do this weekend?"

It was Friday, the lunch break, and Sasori was currently sitting at the table where he always sat, Naruto in front of him.  
"Me? I'm going to hang out with a couple of students from my class on Saturday, why do you ask?"

Bingo.

"You see, my grandmother's friends are coming over then, and I don't really want to see them."  
Naruto nodded, "I get it. You want to hang out with us?"

"Yes please," he said.  
'That had gone surprisingly easy,' he thought to himself.

After they'd talked about where they'd meet up the next day, they said their goodbyes and went to class.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

As soon as he got home, his grandmother asked him about what he'd be doing the next day.

"I'm going to hang out with a friend, Chiyo-baa," he said, though he didn't consider Naruto as a friend.  
Yes, he didn't mind talking to him, but that didn't make them friends. Friends were… different.  
Right?

"…and I was wondering if you'd like to eat that for dinner," he heard his grandmother say, missing half the sentence.  
He nodded. "I'd like that," he answered.

What ever she had proposed for dinner, it didn't really matter to him.  
"But I really have to go do my homework now, Chiyo-baa."

His grandmother nodded understandingly, "I'll call you when dinner is ready."

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

It was 7 AM. It was cold, but not unpleasantly so.  
Sasori was standing outside his house, zipping his coat. He had at least three more hours before he would meet up with Naruto. He silently asked himself what on earth he was thinking - he hated waiting.

But he also hated making others wait. With no further ado he started walking to the one place he didn't mind waiting as much as somewhere else; the park.

It was a good ten minutes walking away from his house. The cold morning air rushed through his hair, caressed his face. He had to admit that the silence was pleasant, even calming.

Maybe, just maybe, the waiting wouldn't be so bad.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

When he had arrived at the park he walked around for a while, taking his time looking at the trees and flowers, listening to the sound of bird and other small creatures.  
The park was empty, but what else had he expected? It was, after all, an early Saturday morning.

After wandering around for a while, he sat down on a bench. There were a few trees scattered around the bench, the leaves blocking almost all the sunlight, and the pond in the distance. It was a lovely sight, especially with the sunrays shining on the water surface.

"Morning, Danna," a familiar voice said suddenly.  
He looked up, trying not to look surprised, even though he was. He hadn't heard any footsteps approaching.

"Good morning, Deidara-san," he said. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."  
The blonde grinned. "I think I noticed that, yeah. You were kinda spacing out."  
"Why are you here?" Sasori asked.

Deidara shrugged as he sat down on the bench, "I like being here, and since I have a few hours before I have to go to work I thought I'd come here, hm. Why, does it bother you then?"  
The redhead shook his head, "No, it doesn't."

There was a silence.  
"So, why are you here so early, Danna? Couldn't sleep?" Deidara snickered slightly.

"Escaping my grandmother's friends," he replied.  
The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Your grandmother's friends?"

"Yes. They are all old ladies, who apparently think I'm the 'cutest thing alive'. I'm supposed to hang out with Naruto and some of his friends today, but I still have to wait until ten."

Deidara laughed. "And what's so bad about it that you'd rather wait two and a half hours than see them?"  
"Everything. I don't even know them, and yet they tend to talk to me and treat me like they do know me. I hate it when strangers touch me."

"But you have seen them before, right? So they aren't total strangers," Deidara said.  
Sasori shrugged, "It doesn't matter. I have seen them a couple of times, yes, but that doesn't mean I know them or that they know me."

"So your grandmother lives with your parents then?" Deidara asked.  
The redhead shook his head, "No. I live with my grandmother, unfortunately."

"Why aren't you living with your parents if you don't like living with your grandmother?"  
"They're dead."

Deidara frowned, "I'm sorry... Didn't mean to bring up bad memories."  
Sasori shook his head again, "It doesn't matter. They died when I was five. Ever since I've been living with grandmother."

"…Wow… Umh… So… Why are you sitting here?" Deidara asked, obviously trying to change the topic.  
"I don't know, it's just something about the view here that I like looking at."  
The blonde nodded. "Same here. This is one of my favorite places to be."

"Do you come here often?" Sasori asked, looking at Deidara.  
"Almost everyday, yeah," he replied. "I walk through the park on my way to school and back."

"Where do you live, then?"  
There was a pause before the blonde answered, "I live in an apartment."  
Sasori rolled his eyes slightly. "Right. Apartment."

Deidara laughed, "It's just where I sleep. I'm usually out here somewhere down town, so I guess you could say I live here, outside, yeah. Oh, I just remembered!" He started rummaging through his bag, which he had brought with him, and pulled some homework. "I was just wondering, because I got some more math…"

"You want me to help you, again." Sasori sighed. "Alright then."  
Deidara grinned, "I win, again, and without a fight, yeah."

"Just because I like math, brat."

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

One hour later Deidara left for work.  
Sasori waited few more minutes before deciding to meet up with Naruto.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Good morning, Sasori-san!" Naruto greeted him, waving with his hand.  
Sasori nodded, "Good morning, Naruto-kun. Where are we going?"

"Sakura-chan wanted to go shopping for new clothes… So I guess we'll go to the mall."  
The redhead raised an eyebrow. "Sakura-chan?"

"She's one of my friends," Naruto explained. "She lives near my house. She's coming with her best friend Ino. Oh, and Shikamaru is coming. From the play, remember?"

"The narrator."  
"That's him! Anyway, I guess they will arrive in a few minutes."

Naruto was right, after less than five minutes the others had arrived and together they walked to the mall.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"White or pink?" Sakura was holding two skirts in front of her.  
Sasori sighed.

When they had arrived at the mall they had decided to split up because Ino wanted to buy new shoes and Sakura wanted new clothes. Naruto wanted to go with Sakura at first, but Ino had pointed out that Naruto needed new shoes - which was true. Shikamaru had thought it was all too 'troublesome', so Ino took him with her as well, leaving Sasori stuck with a stranger who wanted to know if she should pick a white or a pink skirt.

He sighed again. "Let me tell you one thing. I do not care."  
Sakura pouted, a frown appearing on her face. "Just pick one of the two, 'kay?"  
"White," he said. "Pink is a girly colour."

"It's my favorite colour." Sakura went back into the changing room and a few moments later she reappeared wearing the pink skirt.

"It looks good with my hair, right?" she asked, looking at Sasori, who sighed again.  
"Does it look like I care? But if you want to hear the truth, yes. It does look good with your hair."

Sakura frowned again. "Why do I have the feeling you don't want to be here at all?"  
"Maybe because I don't want to be here?"

The pink-haired girl looked at him. "Are you even in Naruto's class?"  
He shook his head. "No. I'm two classes higher."

"Two!?" Sakura looked shocked. "But you look around Naruto's age, maybe a bit older, but…"  
She shook her head slightly. "Anyway, you are the person Naruto talks to during lunch?"

He nodded. "I guess I am. We talk sometimes. Why?"  
Sakura smiled at him and said, "Thank you. He was a bit down back then, and I guess talking to you cheered him up! He's always a very positive person, but back then… Well… It was a hard time for him."

She went back into the changing room and walked out a few minutes later, back into her own clothes.  
"Someone tried to kill him," she said when she was standing next to Sasori.  
"What?"

"You heard me. I was there… I tried to protect him, I got hurt a bit."  
She shrugged. "Nothing big, the scar has almost faded away already. I don't remember how it ended. The guy who attacked Naruto isn't alive anymore. After that he kind of got depressed, but then you showed up and now he's back to normal again, I'd say!"

Sakura looked at her watch and gasped, "We really have to go! We're supposed to meet up with the others at the teashop in seven minutes!"

She quickly walked to the cash register and bought the pink skirt.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

After that they walked to the teashop, where the others were already waiting.

"I'm so sorry! I tried not to take too long, but they had so many nice skirts," Sakura said.  
Ino laughed, shaking her head a little. "Don't worry about it! I understand, completely! And I bet the guys do too." She looked at Naruto and Shikamaru, "_Right?_"  
The boys nodded quickly.

As they sat down a waitress asked what they wanted to drink. Sasori ordered a cup of tea.  
"I went to see the play," Ino said as they waiting for their orders to arrive. "Together with Sakura, of course! We are best friends after all."

The blonde laughed. "To think that we almost started hating each other because of a boy!"  
Sakura laughed too. "Uchiha Sasuke. How blind could we have been? He's so never going to see a girl, even when she's standing right in front of him, _naked_."

Sasori looked at the girls with a slight frown on his face. "Itachi-san's younger brother?"  
They nodded simultaneously.

"We both had a crush on him, and when we found out we both liked him, we almost became enemies. But thankfully we didn't!" Ino said, looking at Sakura, who nodded with a smile.  
"Besides," Ino continued, "Sai-kun isn't bad looking…"

The waitress had arrived with their drinks.  
"Anyway, I bet we're all wondering what your story is, Sasori-san," Sakura said.  
"Sakura-chan! You shouldn't ask questions like that, maybe he doesn't want to talk," Naruto said.  
Shikamaru shook his head. "Troublesome…"

As he could feel four pairs of eyes look at him, Sasori picked up his cup of tea.  
"I'd rather not discus my past," he said before carefully taking a sip of his tea.

Ino shrugged. "Okay then. Maybe you can tell us what kind of classes you like at school?"  
They must have been very desperate to hear about his past, he thought to himself.

"I enjoy art. And biology, though the teacher is a bit strange, or should I say a 'not so likeable person'? I find the human body a very interesting learning subject. Poisons, too."

"Sakura-chan is studying medicine and she's really good at it," Naruto said.  
The pink-haired girl blushed slightly, "Naruto! I'm not good at it…"  
Sasori looked at her. "What do you find interesting about the human body and its functions?"

"I find the healing process and cures to diseases very intriguing," she said. "And you?"  
"Cardiology is something that interests me in particular. In my personal opinion necrosis is another fine subject."  
"I read an article about the cardiac muscle last night…"

As Sakura and Sasori started talking what Hidan would have called 'medical mumbo jumbo', Ino, Shikamaru and Naruto looked at each other. Because they couldn't understand what the other two were saying anyway, they started a conversation of their own.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Welcome home, Sasori-chan. Did you have a good time with your friends?"

He closed the door behind him and slipped out his coat before smiling at his grandmother.  
"It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed hanging out with them!"

She returned his smile with one of her own, "I'm glad." She then asked the usual questions, which he answered politely, still smiling.

After that he quickly went upstairs, saying he still had some homework. That was a lie. He had already finished his homework, but his grandmother didn't need to know that.

The following Sunday passed painfully slow. Again he spend most time in his room, reading, only coming out when he needed to use the bathroom or when he had to go downstairs for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

His grandmother was used to it by now. She didn't ask any questions about his behavior.

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

"Yo, Danna."

It was Monday, the lunch break, and Sasori was sitting at the same table where he always sat, reading.  
The redhead looked up for a moment to see the blonde sitting in front of him. "Good day, Deidara-san."

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the park after school, yeah."  
He nodded, "I think I would like that."  
Deidara grinned, "Okay, I'll see you later then!"

As he watched the blonde walk away he frowned slightly. That had been rather surprising. Why would he want to go to the park with him? He had friends, shouldn't he go to the park with his friends?

He shook his head to clear it from thoughts and went back to his reading.

Unfortunately he didn't even finish reading another page before someone else decided to disturb him.

"Sasori-san," Naruto's voice said.  
He looked up again. "Good day, Naruto-kun."

"Sakura-chan was wondering if you wanted to hang out with us again after school."  
Inwardly, he frowned. Why? For goodness sake, he had 'hung out' with them two days ago, it wasn't like he was suddenly their new friend! And the only reason he had wanted to hang out with them was so that he could escape his grandmother's friends.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, but not today -" 'and hopefully not any time soon' "- I already have somewhere I have to be," he said calmly.

The boy looked a bit surprised, but nodded. "Okay. Maybe some other time."  
He nodded too, "Maybe."

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

When he walked out of his last class Deidara was already waiting for him.  
Together they walked to the park, to the same bench Sasori had sat waiting on Saturday.

"Why me? Why not one of your friends?" Sasori asked as they sat down.  
Deidara shrugged. "Maybe because they don't know a thing about art and you do?"  
"Point taken."

The conversation fell silent, both looking at the view.

Sasori sighed softly, "I should go home before my grandmother starts to wonder where I am…"  
"You can call her and tell her you're going to be home a bit later, right?"

The redhead shook his head, "I don't have a mobile."  
Deidara grinned, "I do. You can use mine, yeah." He handed him his cell phone.  
Sasori muttered a 'thank you' as he called to his house.

"…It's me, Chiyo-baa. …yes, I'm going to be home a bit later, okay? I'm doing homework with a friend, and- …No, it's not a girl, Chiyo-baa. …I know, Chiyo-baa. I'll be careful. See you at home, Chiyo-baa."

When he had hung up he gave the device back to Deidara, who was grinning at him.  
"What?" he asked.

"Nothing, yeah. Just that your voice changed so much when you were talking to your grandmother. Really, you actually sounded… I don't know, happy? But with that scowl on your face…"

"I don't enjoy talking to her," Sasori said. "I usually pretend to be glad to see her and she believes it."  
Deidara was still grinning. "So you lie to her, yeah?"  
"I prefer to think of it as a favor to her."

The blonde laughed, "Yeah, right! You lie to her to protect her old lady brains from the truth that you aren't as nice as you pretend to be around her?"  
Sasori glared at him, "If you'd like to put it that way, yes."

The glare didn't seem to effect the blonde. "So you even smile around her?" he asked, grinning.  
"Yes."  
Another laugh. "The idea alone of you smiling is so screwed up I can't picture it, hm."

The redhead kicked the blonde's leg, "Shut up."  
"Right, Sasori-no-Danna," Deidara said, suppressing a chuckle. "And we're doing homework?"

"It was the best excuse I could think of."  
The blonde's grin grew. "Oh really? Well, now you say homework, yeah…"

Sasori groaned, "Don't tell me you have even more math homework…"  
"And there I thought you _liked_ math. But no, actually. I had a math test, yeah, and I passed."

"It seems that all those times I helped you with math finally pay off then," Sasori said, glad that it hadn't been for nothing. "How old are you, anyway?"

Deidara looked at him, surprised. "Me, yeah? Sixteen, why?"  
Sasori shook his head slightly, "No reason. Though I do find it interesting that you need the help from someone who is two years younger than you."

"Two years!?"  
He rolled his eyes. "You heard me, _brat_. I'm two years younger than you."  
Deidara's face, he noted, looked rather hilarious when he found something hard to believe.

"How on earth did you end up in our class, yeah? And don't call me brat when I'm two years older. Two whole years," the blonde said after a few seconds.  
Sasori looked down at the ground, "I don't like talking about my past. And even if you are older, something that we had already established quite some time ago, you are still a brat."

"Yes, Sasori-no-Danna," Deidara said in a mocking tone of voice.  
"Very mature, brat," Sasori muttered.

"I could say the same to you, Danna," Deidara retorted. "It's ridiculous that you're calling me a brat, yeah."  
"It might be ridiculous, it's true." Sasori smirked. "Though I must say I'm a bit surprised you know that word, since you're such a brat."

Deidara inhaled sharply, but didn't reply.  
After a few minutes he probably started to find the silence uncomfortable, since he was the first to talk again.

"Your grandmother asked you if you were doing homework with a girl, yeah?"  
Sasori nodded, "Yes. Apparently she was wondering about that."  
"Why?"

"I don't know. It was her idea to send me to an all-boys school, it wouldn't be logical if I was doing homework with a girl anyway," he said, frowning slightly.  
Deidara nodded, "She must be paranoid or something, yeah… Maybe she doesn't want you to be in a relationship before you are eighteen."

The redhead laughed dryly. "If she wouldn't want me to meet any females my age, sending me to an all-boys school wouldn't be enough. She'd have to lock me up. Never let me out to see the daylight." He shrugged. "I'm not even interested in any kind of relationships."

"No family, friendship or love relationships, hm?" Deidara asked. "So you never had friends?"  
"Correct."  
"Isn't that really lonely, yeah?"  
"Maybe."

The blonde looked at him, "What if others want to be friends with you, yeah? Do you reject them?"  
"I wouldn't know. Maybe, maybe not." He averted his maroon eyes to look at the pond, following the ripples on the water surface created by the soft evening wind.

They watched the scenery in silence for some time.

"It's getting colder, we should be going home, yeah," Deidara said softly, trying not to disturb the silence.  
Sasori nodded as he stood up. "We should." He looked at Deidara, who had stood up as well.

"See you tomorrow, Danna," the blonde said.  
He nodded again, "Yes." He walked past him, towards the exit of the park nearest to his house.

After a few steps, however, he turned around. Deidara was still standing where he was before Sasori walked away.

"I was the best student of my class. Probably of the whole school. I studied, studied and studied. I didn't have friends, and even if I had wanted them, I didn't have time for them. Within a year I had already studied all the material for the next two years. They won't let me skip more than two classes, they said. The age difference would get too big."

The blonde nodded, "Thanks for telling me, Danna. See you tomorrow, yeah."

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

End of Chapter

* * *

**Authors Note: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. I know, it probably wasn't nearly as funny as the last one, but I still hope you enjoyed reading it. So umh… Tell me what you think of it? Please?  
I apologize for any spelling/grammar mistakes.  
EDIT: It seems that this site really hates me. It keeps destroying my page breaks/lines/things I use to make it clear where one part of text stops. I hate it. Oh well... I better get used to it, I guess. Just hope it won't do it again now...**


	4. Trust

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, this is a fan fiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

School is the Worst Thing Ever  
Chapter four

**_Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it._**

Sasori was bored. He was very bored, probably more bored than he had ever been before during class.  
He sighed, putting his elbows on his desk and resting his chin on his hands.  
It was Tuesday, biology class and Orochimaru-sensei was explaining how cells were born.

He liked learning about cells, neurons, all kinds of things, but the way the teacher was talking alone made it boring. That, and he already knew everything the man was going to say.  
To him it felt like he was watching a TV show, for the twentieth time.

He closed his eyes for a moment, sighing again. When he opened them again he was looking straight into Orochimaru's face. His breath hitched in his throat. He tried to keep his face emotionless but when he saw the man smirk slightly he knew it hadn't worked - he had probably seen how his eyes had widened a bit and his pupils had dilated.

"Am I boring you, Sasori-kun?" the teacher asked with a sinister gleam in his eyes.  
Before he could answer Orochimaru continued, "You haven't been paying attention the past few lessons. What have you got to say about that, Sasori-kun?"

He looked the teacher in the eyes. "I haven't been paying attention, that's true. However, it's only because I already know it all. And the way you are explaining it doesn't make it very interesting, no offense."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and ran the tip of his tongue over the bottom of his lip, obviously annoyed.  
"Alright then, Sasori-kun, since you already know it all so well, why don't you stay here to do some tests later?"

"And why should I, if I may ask?"  
"Because you now have detention. I'll see you here after your last class, Sasori-kun."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it**__**.**_  
  
"You got detention?"  
Sasori nodded. "He probably didn't enjoy hearing that I found it rather boring to listen to him."

Deidara snickered. "You actually said that, yeah?"  
"All I did was answer his question. Chiyo-baa will probably worry," the redhead said, turning a page in his book.

"Want to use my phone again, hm?" Deidara asked, searching for the device in his bag.  
"Yes please."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it**__**.**_

"I see you decided to come, Sasori-kun."

The way Orochimaru said his name sent a shiver down his spine. He sat down at his desk, looking at the tests Orochimaru had already placed there for him.

With a sigh he got out his pen and started with the first test.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it**__**.**_

He wasn't nearly done when a couple of hours had already passed.  
"When are you going to let me go home?" he asked Orochimaru.

The teacher shrugged, "When you are done with those tests."  
He finished writing down another answer, completing yet another test before looking at the teacher.  
"I have been doing tests for a couple of hours now."

Orochimaru looked at his watch and smirked. "You have." He stood up and walked over to his desk.  
There he bent through his knees and looked at Sasori. "So tell me, genius, do you think a teacher would have the authority to keep you here for hours, even though detention usually doesn't last that long?"

The teacher smirked again. "I didn't think it would be this easy. It's your fault, really. You are smart enough to have figured it out an hour ago, when there were still other teachers around… But now…"

Orochimaru walked back to his own desk, looking in the drawer. Sasori wasted no time getting up, grabbing his backpack and walking to the door, but the teacher was already standing there, dangling a bunch of keys in front of him. "You want to leave already? I didn't think so, Sasori-kun."

"You're sick," Sasori hissed angrily at Orochimaru as he locked the door.  
The man smirked again and started to walk towards him. The redhead started to back away until he felt the wall against his back. Orochimaru's smirk only grew when Sasori noticed he was cornered - literally.

"Sasori-kun, how about we have some _fun_?"  
He felt nauseous hearing Orochimaru say his name like he was his.  
"What are you going to do to me?" he asked, trying to remain calm. Panicking would get him nowhere, he knew. It would only cloud his mind.

"What am I going to do to you? Hm… Let me think… Are you a virgin?"  
He didn't answer; instead he ran past Orochimaru, towards the door.  
Before he got there, however, the teacher pushed him onto the floor.

He started struggling to get away from the teacher, but didn't succeed. Orochimaru chuckled, knowing he was the stronger one of the two. "You sure are in a hurry to leave, aren't you?" Even though he couldn't see the man he knew that he was smirking.  
"We can't have that, can we? How about we tie you up a bit?" His hands were pulled together behind his back and tied up with a rope.

"You bastard," Sasori snarled, wheezing. The man was pushing down his back onto the floor and it felt like he was crushing his lungs and other internal organs. He tried to kick him, but failed. "Do you honestly think you can get away with something like this!?"

Orochimaru chuckled again, "Think? I don't think I can… I know I can, Sasori-kun. Now stop struggling. You know it won't help."

He didn't stop struggling, he started to struggle even more, squirm, kick, pull at the rope binding his wrists even though it started to cut into his wrists, anything he could do to get away from the teacher.

A hard smack resounded in the room and he stopped his struggling for a moment. Orochimaru had just hit him over the head, leaving a burning feeling.  
"Stop struggling," the teacher said in a demanding tone of voice.

Again he did the opposite, earning an annoyed sigh from the man. "Alright. Since you obviously won't stop struggling, I'll just drug you."  
His eyes widened. "What!?"  
The following moment he felt a needle pierce the skin of his lower left arm.

"Don't worry, it isn't a 'date rape drug', if that's what you're thinking. It's something I created myself, just a drug that will make all of this a lot easier… For me, that is."

His vision began to blur when Orochimaru pulled the needle out of his arm.  
"You won't get away with this," he muttered.

He felt the teacher shift until he felt his breath against his ear. "I will, Sasori-kun. No one will come to rescue you, all of your little friends have gone home and probably forgotten all about you, busy with their own family. There is no one around to stop me, it's just you and me."

He wanted to struggle, he really did, but his arms felt too heavy to move and he began to feel lightheaded, too. "I'll tell others what you have done," he hissed, closing his eyes, trying to block out the feeling of Orochimaru's warm breath against his ear.

"You won't," the man said, sounding slightly amused. "You'll feel too ashamed, and you should feel that way, because this is your fault. You're just too cute, Sasori-kun. You won't tell anyone."

He would have said something to counter that, but didn't. He felt empty. It wouldn't be his fault, he knew, but somewhere he did feel that way. There was nothing he could do now anyway. He was trapped; all he could do was lay there or lay there and hope a miracle would happen.

He didn't believe in miracles, giving him only one option. Lay there.

Orochimaru licked his ear, then his neck. He tried to move away, but when that didn't work he closed his eyes again, wishing for it all to be a nightmare.  
"Don't worry, relax… It will hurt, but I bet you'll enjoy it later on. You'll be begging me for more."

He shook his head slightly, "No I won't. I don't want this. I won't want this. Not now, not ever."  
Orochimaru's hands untucked his shirt, then roamed over his back and sides.

"Stop," he said as clear as he could, but the teacher did not stop.  
"If you beg for it… Maybe… But I think not."

When he felt the teacher's hands rest on his thankfully still clad buttocks he gave up the last bit of hope he had. He couldn't get away. He kept his eyes shut so maybe, maybe he could pretend it wasn't real.  
"Any last words before we start?" Orochimaru crooned.

"How about you let him go, you dirtbag, yeah!"  
Orochimaru was kicked off of him and the rope binding his wrists together was cut.

He was pulled up to his feet rather roughly. He would have fallen to the ground again if he hadn't found a desk to lean on, or at least he thought it was a desk - his vision was still blurred heavily.

A few cries of pain and some profanities came from behind him, probably from Orochimaru, but he wasn't sure - he couldn't concentrate.  
He was pulled out the classroom, nearly tripping over his own feet twice, and then through the hallways.

"Stop!"  
The person pulling him stopped running and turned around, keeping a good grip on his arm.

"Give him back, Deidara-kun, I wasn't done yet," he heard Orochimaru hiss. He sounded like he was in pain, but he didn't feel sorry for him at all. How could he feel sorry for the man who had just attempted to rape him?  
"No way," Deidara yelled at the teacher. "No way am I giving him back to you!"

"I'll call your parents."  
The blonde seemed to hesitate for a moment. "Okay, go call them. I'd rather have you talk to them than me, hm."  
Deidara started pulling him along with him again, towards the stairway he noticed.

"Can't we take the elevator?" Sasori asked softly. He wasn't exactly looking forward to falling down the stairs, and with his vision blurred, his arms and legs not cooperating and the feeling that he could possibly faint at any moment he didn't want to risk it.

"Do we have one?" he heard Deidara ask him. "Look, we don't have much time, yeah? And even if we had an elevator, those things can be rather slow."  
"I don't want to walk down those stairs. I'm not feeling so well…"

He heard him sigh. "Okay, we'll talk about this later, hm. Just trust me."  
The next moment his feet weren't touching the floor anymore.  
"What are you doing!?" he asked in an almost angry tone.

"I'm carrying you down the stairs, now shut up, I said we'll talk about this later when we don't have to worry about creepy teachers following us," Deidara replied.  
_**  
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Outside the school Deidara dragged Sasori towards the secret place for class skipping.

"Thank goodness I brought my bike with me, yeah," the blonde muttered, half to himself, letting go of the redhead's arm. "You can sit on the rack," he said, picking up the bicycle. "Do you want to go to your home or maybe somewhere else?"

"Somewhere else, please," Sasori said softly. He didn't want to see his grandmother right away - didn't know if he could pretend to be okay and smile after what had happened a couple of minutes ago. That, and there was an unknown drug in his system. His grandmother would notice that.

"Hold on tight, I'm going to take a few shortcuts, hm. It'll be a bumpy ride," Deidara warned Sasori when they had gotten on the bike. He wrapped his arms around the blonde's waist, closing his eyes once again. Wishing it would all be over soon.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it**__**.**_  
  
"We're here," Deidara said as he opened the door to his apartment. "It isn't big, so you won't be able to get lost around here, hm. On your left is the bathroom, right in front of you the bedroom and on your right the livingroom and kitchen, okay?"  
Sasori nodded.

They walked into the livingroom where Deidara gestured him to sit down on the couch while he walked to the kitchen to fill a glass with water. "Should I call your grandmother to tell her you're going to sleep over here, yeah?"

He nodded again. The blonde gave him the mobile so he could enter his phone number.  
"Here," he said, giving the phone back to him. Deidara gave him the glass of water before walking out the room.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it**__**.**_

When the blonde returned he had finished the glass of water.  
"You can stay here tonight. Sleep in the bed, I'll sleep on the couch, yeah."

He shook his head, "No, I should sleep on the couch. I am the guest here and I-"  
Deidara cut him off before he could continue. "Danna, you sleep in the bed. It's a double bed, you can sleep on the side I don't sleep on, and this couch isn't that soft, hm."

"That's why I insist that I should sleep on the couch! This is your apartment, or at least that is the impression I got from what you told me."  
"You are going to sleep in the bed, yeah."

Sasori shook his head, annoyed. "I said-"  
Deidara cut him off again, raising his voice this time. "I know what you said, Danna, and I say you are going to sleep in the bed, no further argument about it, okay!?"

Sasori didn't reply. He looked at - or at least tried to - his hands, biting on his lower lip slightly.  
The blonde sighed. "I'm sorry, 'kay? I shouldn't have yelled, but just sleep in the bed. For goodness sake you almost got raped! By Orochimaru, yeah!"

He flinched at the word 'raped'. "You don't have to be kind to me because of that, it wasn't your fault, was it?"  
A look of shock appeared on his face. "Was it?" he repeated, a bit louder, his breathing becoming irregular. "Did you plan it together!? How else could you have gotten into the classroom when he locked the door? And you didn't ask anything when you probably saw how I could barely stand. You know I'm drugged. You- He- Why did you save me, to- to use me like that!?"

If his vision hadn't been blurred by the drug, he could have seen the disgusted look on Deidara's face.  
"No, never. I would never do anything like that to anyone, yeah. I… I picked the lock. And I heard the part where he drugged you. I should have been faster with picking the lock, but I couldn't make too much noise, hm. Sorry I wasn't any quicker."

When Sasori didn't say anything Deidara sighed again. "It's getting late, do you want to do anything else before you go to bed? Maybe call the police, yeah?"

"I would like to wash myself before going to sleep," Sasori answered, ignoring the last part the blonde had said. "And I'm not going to sleep in these clothes, nor in my underwear only."

"Right… I think I have a shirt you can wear tonight."  
"A clean one?"  
"…Yeah, a white clean one I've probably never worn before. Is that okay?"

He nodded. "Thank you for your efforts."  
"No problem," the blonde replied. "I'll go get the shirt and a few clean towels so you can take a quick shower and then go to bed."

He stopped at the door. "You do think you won't pass out or something in the shower?"  
"I'm perfectly capable of taking a shower."  
"Just asking, yeah. Don't want to be accused of murder…"

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it**__**.**_

The next morning he woke up, startled by the sound of the alarm clock on the nightstand next to him.

He sat up in the double bed and immediately regretted it when the room started spinning. He let his head hit the pillow again, slowly remembering what had happened the previous day.  
He closed his eyes and sighed, feeling a headache coming up.

"Morning, hm." Deidara walked into the bedroom, hitting the alarm clock, silencing the device.  
"Good morning, Deidara-san," he said, sitting up again, a bit more careful this time.

"Go get dressed, I'll make some coffee and breakfast, yeah," the blonde said, suppressing a yawn.  
"Could I have a cup of tea?" Sasori asked.

Deidara frowned, "Tea? Who drinks tea in the morning?"  
"I do," the redhead answered. "I _always_ drink tea at breakfast."  
"Okay Danna, I'll… go see what I can do."

The blonde left the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts.  
_**  
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"Danna, shouldn't you… you know, call the police or someone else who can help you and tell them what happened, hm?"  
He ignored him, stirring his tea. "Could you please pass me the butter, Deidara-san?"

The blonde handed him the butter, frowning. "You can't ignore what happened, hm."  
"Watch me, brat," Sasori muttered under his breath.  
"Sasori-no-Danna, I think you are being unreasonable! You have to call someone and talk about it, yeah!"

The redhead glared at the blonde. "You don't have the right to tell me what to do, you brat."  
"Just call someone about it, you can even call anonymously," Deidara insisted.

"No."  
"Why not?"

He didn't reply, started stirring his tea again.  
"Is it because of your grandmother?"  
He looked up from his tea, glaring again. "That doesn't concern you."

"So it is because of your grandmother, hm. You don't want her to know about what happened, do you?" Deidara asked, looking Sasori in the eyes.  
He averted his own quickly, returning to stirring his tea. "I don't want her to know," he answered truthfully.

"You have to talk about it to someone, yeah."  
Again he glared at the blonde. "I do not have to do anything!"  
"You're right, I can't make you do anything. But I can call your grandmother…"

"If you do that, I'll make you regret it," Sasori hissed angrily.  
"Why can't your grandmother know about what happened? It wasn't like it was your fault, you obviously didn't want it, hm. So why?"

He watched the steam rise from his tea. "She'll move us to a new place. I… don't want to move again."  
"Not if the police put the pedophile behind bars, right?"

He shook his head. "No. She'd still move us, even if there wouldn't be a threat."  
Deidara sighed. "Okay, but can't you at least call the police and tell them to not tell her, yeah?"

"Honestly, Deidara-san. She's my guardian and not stupid. She would find out."  
Sasori drank his tea slowly, looking out the window. When he put down his cup Deidara spoke again.  
"You still have to talk about it to someone at some point, yeah."

"Who? Is there anyone I can trust?"  
"…Me."

Sasori looked at Deidara and laughed dryly. "You."  
"I mean it, hm."  
He looked down at his now empty cup. "Yes, you do. I believe that. I wasn't laughing because of that, it's just that the last time I trusted someone was… No, never mind. If I ever feel the need to talk, I'll talk to you."

"If you get nightmares, if you get paranoid, anything, yeah?"  
Sasori nodded, rolling his eyes. "Yes. I will talk to you when I feel the need to talk to anyone."

"Promise?"  
"You are really behaving quite childish, Deidara-san, or should I say, brat?"  
"Promise?" Deidara repeated, looking into the maroon eyes.

The redhead sighed. "Promise. Happy now?"  
Deidara grinned widely. "Yeah, I am," he said.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it**__**.**_

"Piano lessons?"

The principle nodded. "It'll be different from biology, but since you already know everything this year would teach you, I think it'll be good for you."

"Thank you," Sasori said, relieved that he wouldn't have to see Orochimaru anymore.  
He silently thanked Deidara. It had been the blonde who had told him to talk to the principal about his biology class.  
"No problem," Tsunade said, smiling. "We don't have many students who are as intelligent as you."

He stood up, ready to leave the room and go to his first class, but waited when he heard the principal speak again.  
"Sasori-kun, could you tell Naruto when you see him during lunch that Jiraiya will pick him up after school?"

He nodded, "Yes, I will. Please excuse me, I have to go to class."  
When the principal made no objections he left the room.

He wondered how the principal knew that he talked to Naruto during lunch, who this Jiraiya was and about his new piano lessons. Why piano lessons? Why not something else? Not that he thought he wouldn't enjoy piano lessons, it just seemed a bit weird. The principal had said they didn't have many students like him.

He shook his head slightly, trying to clear it from thoughts. He would have time to think about things like that at home, after school.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it**__**.**_  
  
"Naruto-kun, I have a message from the principal for you."  
The boy looked up, a bit surprised. "Really?"

He nodded, "Yes. She told me to tell you that Jiraiya will pick you up after school."  
Naruto grinned. "Okay, thanks for telling!"

"Yo, Danna."  
They both looked up to see Deidara walk towards the table where they were sitting.

"Danna, would you mind introducing me to your friend?" Deidara asked, with a slight frown on his face.  
"Naruto-kun, this is Deidara-san. Deidara-san, this is Naruto-kun," Sasori said simply, picking up the book he was reading before Naruto had joined him at the table.

"You're from the play, hm?" Deidara asked the other blonde as he sat down.  
"I was one of the black cats, and you were Gretel."  
"Don't remind me," Deidara muttered. "Hidan won't shut up about it, yeah…"

"Hidan?"  
"One of the guys I hang out with, hm. He was Hansel in the play."

Naruto grinned, "You mean that guy you and Sasuke beat up?"  
Sasori stopped listening and focused on reading his book.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it**__**.**_

"How are you, Sasori-chan?" his grandmother asked as he hung up his coat.  
"I'm fine, thank you, Chiyo-baa. I had a great time staying at my friend's house," he answered with a fake smile.  
His grandmother smiled back at him. "I'm glad."

After that she asked the usual questions, walking into the kitchen where she was cooking dinner.  
He followed, knowing she wanted him to do so.  
"Did your friend's parents mind that you stayed the night at their house?"

"No, they did not, Chiyo-baa," he said, his mind thinking back at the previous night. Now that he thought of it, he hadn't seen Deidara's parents. At all. The apartment was too small for a whole family, since the only bedroom was barely big enough for one double bed. Where were his parents? The only time he had heard the blonde mention his parents was when Orochimaru had threatened to call them.

A chill ran down his spine as he thought of what had happened before Deidara had entered the room.

His grandmother's voice stopped him from think about it any longer.  
"Could you please go into the backyard and get me some fresh parsley? I would do it myself, but my back hurts a bit today."

He nodded and quickly walked into the backyard, past the periwinkle flowers his grandmother loved, past the apple tree, all the way back to a small shady corner where his grandmother had planted a few herbs she often used for cooking.  
When he had plucked some parsley he turned around and walked back to the house, until he heard footsteps behind him. He spun around, only to see that there was no one there.

He turned back around and started walking again, and so did the footsteps behind him.  
Instead of turning around again he ran back to the house, slowing down just before he got to the door.

Just to be sure he looked behind him, but, as he already thought, there was indeed no one there.  
Shaking his head he opened the backdoor and entered the house.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

'_The last time I trusted someone was before my parents died. They died, and so did my hopes and dreams for the future.'  
_  
End of chapter

**Authors Note: It took a bit longer than I had expected to write this, so I'm sorry for the wait!  
I hope you enjoyed reading it, and please tell me what you think!  
That and should I put a warning at the beginning of the chapter? I mean... Nothing happens... Or should I raise the rating? But nothing happened, so why should I? Just to be safe, maybe...**

**I'm a bit paranoid, I guess...**


	5. Nightmares

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, this is a fan fiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

School is the Worst Thing Ever  
Chapter five

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"_I didn't think it would be this easy."_

"_You bastard."_

"_Don't worry, relax… It will hurt, but I bet you'll enjoy it later on. You'll be begging me for more."_

"_Stop!"_

Sasori sat up in his bed, eyes wide, his breathing laboured. He looked around and felt relieved to see his own room. His eyes landed on the nightstand next to his bed. 4:23 the alarm clock read, making him sigh and fall back onto the bed.

He had just had another nightmare, probably the third one over the past two days. He snuggled deeper under the quilt, remembering the snake's hands touching him.

Maybe he should talk to Deidara about it, he had promised that he would tell him if he got nightmares.

No, he didn't have to talk to the blonde. He wouldn't be able to help him, would he? He closed his eyes, concentrating on breathing slowly.

"_All of your little friends have gone home and probably forgotten all about you, busy with their own family. There is no one around to stop me, it's just you and me."_

His eyes shot open again. Muttering a few curse words he slid out of his bed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to sleep again. Not know what else he could do, he walked to his desk and looked around in the drawers. When he was done searching through two of them, he opened the third and last one.

Almost immediately he saw the photo album his grandmother had given him a few weeks after his parents' death. Ignoring the album he reached behind it and pulled out a piece of wood and a small knife.

He held the knife in his right hand and the piece of wood in his left. Making puppets had always been one of his favourite pastimes.

He wondered why he hadn't crafted anything new over the past months. He sat down on the chair standing near his desk and switched on the small lamp standing on the desk.

If he wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore that night anyway, he'd better spend his time doing something he enjoyed.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"Don't forget… …pages forty-two and… …Sasori-kun, are you still with us?"

The redhead opened his eyes, remembering he was at school and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei, I couldn't concentrate," he said, blinking his eyes a couple of times to stop them from closing again.

The masked teacher raised his eyebrows. "You sound tired."

"I was studying the entire evening," Sasori lied, hoping the teacher wouldn't ask any further.

"Okay, I'll repeat what I just said. Don't forget to do pages forty-two and forty-three because you'll all have a test on Friday, or in other words, tomorrow."

Almost every student in the classroom groaned, knowing they'd have to spend quite some of their free time studying if they wanted to pass the test.

Sasori was one of the few who didn't. He was almost certain that all he needed to do was refresh his memory a little by going over the two pages. He studied as much as he could in his spare time, since he didn't have much to do otherwise.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

Sasori felt a bit better when the lunch break had finally arrived.

He sat down at the table where he always sat, put his arms on the table, placed his head on top of his arms and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply through his nose as he felt the almost comforting darkness take a hold of him.

He would have fallen asleep if Naruto's voice hadn't called him back, disturbing the peaceful state his mind had gone into.

"Good day, Sasori-san!"

He opened his eyes, blinked a couple of times before replying. "…Good day, Naruto-kun."

The boy was grinning and probably looked happier than the redhead had ever seen him before.

"You look tired," Naruto said, the grin turning into a look of genuine concern, as he sat down across the table.

"I studied a bit too long last night, I suppose," Sasori lied. "You seem to be awfully happy, though," he said, trying to change the subject.

The grin reappeared on the boy's face. "Ero-sennin adopted me!"

"Who?" the redhead asked.

"Ero-sennin," Naruto repeated. "Though everyone probably knows him as Jiraiya, but he's a real pervert!"

"If you just got adopted, did you live in a foster home before then?"

Naruto's face drooped. "No, I…"

"…He lived in an apartment with his previous caretaker, Sarutobi, who was also the previous principle of this school, up until one week before you transferred, Danna. The old man died, or should I say, was murdered. No one knows who did it, hm." Deidara sat down at the table.

Sasori looked at the blonde, frowning slightly. "I hadn't heard of that before."

He looked at Naruto. "I'm sorry for your loss, and for bringing up the subject."

The boy shook his head, "No, it's okay. After he was killed I continued to live in the apartment, but I guess I'll move now that Ero-sennin adopted me." He grinned again, "At least I won't have to repair everything when it breaks when I live at Ero-sennin's! Anyway, I gotta go now, there are still some other people I want to tell it too!"

And with that Naruto stood up and walked away, waving at the redhead before he disappeared behind a couple of other students.

Sasori blinked with his eyes a couple of times as he waved back at the boy, before closing them again.

"Are you okay, yeah?" he heard Deidara ask him.

He nodded, "Yes. I studied a bit too long yesterday night."

"…I don't believe that, hm," the blonde said, making inner-Sasori frown. Why couldn't he just be the blonde idiot he was… sometimes.

"I was studying," the redhead said, opening his eyes to look at him.

Deidara's azure-blue eye looked back at him. "You promised, remember, hm?"

Sasori sighed, rummaged through his backpack and showed the blonde the piece of wood he had been working on. "I studied and did this." It wasn't a complete lie.

"What is it going to be?" the blonde asked, looking at the piece of wood. "It looks like a head. A doll, hm?"

"A puppet," Sasori corrected him. "This is going to be the head of a puppet. It's going to be art."

"So it's going to be a doll. Dull, yeah. Unless…" A grin appeared on the blonde's face. "Unless I can put it on fire, or even better, explode it!"

He narrowed his maroon eyes. "No you idiot, you will not touch my _art_. Or make it explode. Explosions will never be true art, for _true_ art is eternal. Now if only your little brain would take notice of that…"

Deidara's grin only grew bigger. "I guess my brain is too small to understand those big words, hm! But I'm sure your doll- I mean, puppet, will be very nice."

"My _puppet_ will be art. True, eternal art."

The blonde nodded. "Could I maybe borrow it for a while when it's done, hm?"

"For what?" Sasori asked cautiously, not trusting the way the other spoke. He seemed a bit too happy.

"So that I can see what true art is?" The blonde looked at the redhead innocently.

"And in what state will I see my puppet after that?"

Deidara's innocent look disappeared, a mischievous grin replacing it.

"That's what I thought," Sasori mumbled, frowning. "No. I am not going to lend it to you so you can turn it into pathetic fireworks."

"They're not pathetic! Explosions are art, a fleeting moment of pure beauty, yeah," the blonde said, sounding almost angry.

"Pathetic. Fireworks. Do I have to spell it for you?"

"You make dolls! Girly, little children's dolls, hm! Explosions, now that's true art!"

"P-a-t-h-e-t-i-c f-i-r-e-w-o-r-k-s. All it does is destroy things. That is not what I'd call remotely pretty."

"That's probably because your brain has turned into wool from all the playing with wooden dolls, yeah."

Sasori leaned towards Deidara and looked into his ear until the blonde moved away.

"What the hell are you looking at, yeah!?"

"I was trying to see if you actually had a brain, but I'm afraid I didn't see anything."

"Freaky doll-creator, hm."

"Snotty pyromaniac."

"Wood-addict, yeah."

"Brat."

"What kind of an insult is that?" Deidara asked.

"The kind you dislike hearing, mostly because you know it's true, brat," Sasori said. Just as Deidara was about to reply he saw Orochimaru standing near the doorway of the cafeteria, a smirk on the man's face. The room suddenly seemed to grow cold.

"-and that's what I think of it, yeah!" he heard Deidara growl angrily.

He looked at the blonde and shrugged. "So be it, brat." It didn't matter that he hadn't listened. Whatever the blonde had said, it had probably been something like 'I don't like it when you call me that, but not because it's true, because it isn't true, blah blah blah'.

He looked back at where Orochimaru was standing, only to see that he was gone. Disappeared into thin air.

"You're such an ass, yeah." Deidara stood up, glared at the redhead and walked away.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

Sasori didn't see the blonde the next day, which was fine in his opinion.

What was a bit less fine was that Naruto had decided to talk him into spending the rest of his day after school with him and his friends. The only reason he had said yes was because he had seen Orochimaru look at him, again.

This time they went all the way to the other part of town. Of course he had called his grandmother first to tell her that he'd be home a bit later with Naruto's mobile.

Though he had first thought it was going to be rather boring, he soon changed his mind when they visited a little shop which sold art supplies.

He sighed as he sat down at the bus stop. He knew he could walk the way home, but it was getting darker by the minute.

And so he waited. And waited. And waited until he got fed up with waiting.

He stood up, walked over to the timetable and read that the bus he was waiting for only went once an hour.

The redhead was glad there wasn't anyone standing near him when he muttered a few quite colourful words. He decided to walk the way home. Thirty minutes should be enough time, and walking was better than sitting still in the cold.

The streets were relatively empty, the silence deafening. That was, until he heard footsteps approaching him from behind. Not very fast, but they were there. He shot a glance over his shoulder, seeing nothing there.

He took a deep breath to calm himself and quickened his pace. The footsteps stopped. He shook his head, it was clearly just his mind playing tricks on him. Probably because he hadn't been getting much sleep lately.

After five minutes the footsteps were back, and faster this time. Sasori told himself again it was just his mind, but still started walking quicker.

When the footsteps didn't disappear, he looked over his shoulder. His eyes widened, his heart skipped a beat and his breath got stuck in his throat; in the distance he could see a person, or rather, the form of a man. It was too dark to actually see something as far away as the man was. The man was indeed walking towards him and he could have sworn he heard the man laugh- no, chuckle. Just like Orochimaru.

He quickly looked back to where he was walking and started running as fast as he could, not caring where he went, as long as he got away from whoever was following him.

Then he found himself standing in front of the door of an apartment, not knowing how he had gotten there.

Without hesitation he knocked on the door, loudly, looked back at the end of the gallery he was standing, where the stairs and elevator were, then back at the door, knocking again.

When the door finally opened he wasn't too surprised to see Deidara standing there, a puzzled look on his face, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, a towel over his dripping hair and another one over his shoulders.

"Sasori-Danna, what are you doing here, yeah?"

"I don't know," the redhead said, inwardly cursing the fact that he had ran to the blonde's apartment and not home. He could hear the footsteps again, walking up the stairs. Quickly he turned his head to look at the end of the gallery, only to see that there was nothing there.

"…Is that blood?" he heard Deidara ask. Blood? What was the idiot talking about now? He looked at the other, frowning.

"I can clearly see a bloodstain on the knees of your pants, hm," Deidara said, as if reading his mind.

Sasori looked down at his knees and saw that the blonde was right. On his left leg's knee, about the size of his fist, there was a bloodstain. More than just a bloodstain, he noted. The fabric of his jeans was partly ripped near the knee area, showing a bit of his apparently bleeding knee.

"Could I perhaps come inside for a moment?" Sasori asked, not feeling very comfortable standing on the gallery. Deidara nodded and opened the door a bit more so that Sasori could come in.

He sat down on the couch as the blonde closed the door and rolled up his jeans to look at his knee. It didn't look very good. From what he could remember both of his knees had been in perfect state of health, but his left was now scraped badly.

"That doesn't look pretty, Danna," he heard Deidara say. "How did you get that? Gotten into a fight, yeah?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't fight. I might have fallen while I was running."

"Running?" the blonde raised an eyebrow. "Running from what?" Deidara asked.

From what, indeed. From something that was there one moment, gone the next? A figment of his imagination?

"Could I maybe tend to my knee first?" he asked, instead of answering the blonde's question.

Deidara nodded and gave him a first-aid kit.

After stopping the bleeding by applying pressure and cleaning the wound he bandaged his knee.

"Are you going to tell me what happened or not, hm?" the blonde asked when he was done.

"I…" he paused. "I should call my grandmother." She was probably very worried by now, and he didn't want her to call the police, thinking that something might have happened to him.

Deidara handed him the phone with a frown. "You sure know how to avoid questions you don't like, yeah."

The redhead dialled his phone number, not answering Deidara's question. He didn't have to, did he?

"Chiyo-baa, it's me, Sasori. …Yes, I know. I'm at a friend's house right now… …Yes, Chiyo-baa. I'll call when I leave- …I- …Yes, I know what time it is- …It's dark outsi- …Yes, Chiyo-baa. I'll call you back in a minute." He ended the conversation and frowned. "Women…"

The redhead sighed and looked at the blonde. "My grandmother wants to know if your parents can bring me home with their car. She doesn't want me to wander around in the dark."

Deidara shook his head. "My parents have a car, but I'm not going to call them. Besides, it would take them all night to get here, hm."

"You live alone then? What do the authorities think of that?" Sasori asked. He wasn't surprised to hear that the other's parents weren't living in the apartment.

"This is my parents' property. They pay for the water, electricity, everything, except food. That's why I have a job. I live here, alone, but that's just a minor detail, yeah."

He raised an eyebrow. "And the authorities allow it?"

Deidara shrugged. "My parents know some people… who know some people, hm."

"Where I come from you aren't allowed to live alone until you are eighteen."

"Yeah, well, this is Konoha, hm. Things are different around here, I guess. But enough about me." Deidara looked him in the eyes. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

He looked at the phone in his hands. "I have to call my grandmother back."

The blonde sighed, obviously annoyed that he was avoiding the question again. "Call her. You can stay here tonight, hm."

After another conversation with his grandmother he gave the phone back to Deidara. His grandmother had thought it was a good idea for him to stay the night there. Travelling through the dark was only safe with a car. Other than her rambling about safety she had told him her friends were coming over the next day, again. Of course, he was 'busy'.

"And now, are you or are you not going to tell me what happened, hm?" the blonde asked impatiently.

"I heard footsteps."

"Footsteps?" Deidara looked at him, baffled. "You heard _footsteps_?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Are you screwing with me now? All you heard was footsteps and that's why you end up at my apartment with a bloody knee, yeah!?"

Sasori stood up. "I should leave."

Deidara followed, blocking his way to the hall. "Oh no you won't. If you leave right now, your granny will be mad at me, yeah. Not looking forward to that." The blonde closed his eyes a moment to calm himself. "Okay. We're going to sit down and talk, hm."

They both sat down again, Sasori on the couch, Deidara on the chair.

"Footsteps?" Deidara asked.

"Yes. But there was no one there, most of the time. Tonight-" The redhead stopped abruptly. "This is a complete waste of time, it is probably just lack of sleep."

"Lack of sleep?" Sasori mentally slapped himself. "You mean that you have been having nightmares, hm?"

"Yes," he answered. If the blonde hadn't been angry before, he most certainly was now.

"For how long?"

"They started the first night after the event, or maybe the second one. I don't remember the exact night."

"And you didn't talk to me about them, even though you promised, hm?"

Sasori looked at Deidara. "I didn't promise I'd tell you right away, did I? I am telling you now, am I not?"

When the other didn't reply he continued. "They aren't that bad, really. Just a replay of that evening. The only problem is that I usually can't sleep afterwards, because the memory keeps replaying in my head when I try to close my eyes. That's all."

"And what happened that Tuesday, hm?"

"I was doing tests. He had told me I had to make them. After a couple of hours I still wasn't done. I asked him when I could go home. He… asked me if I thought that he had the authority to keep me at school for so long. I should have noticed… He… I…" The redhead looked at the floor. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Why not?" Deidara asked.

"It is rather embarrassing. I could have prevented it from happening."

"You couldn't have prevented it, hm."

Sasori shook his head slightly. "I could have."

"Oh really, yeah? Care to tell me how?" the blonde asked.

"I…" He stared at his hands for a moment. "I don't know."

Azure-blue eyes gleamed slightly, saying 'see, I was right'. "And what happened next?"

"He locked the door when I tried to walk out the room. He cornered me, I tried to run away by slipping past him. He… pushed me onto the floor and tied me up. Then he drugged me when I didn't behave like a helpless victim. He was about to… undress me when you…" He closed his eyes, put a hand to his forehead. "You know the rest. I don't feel the need to tell you something you already know."

Deidara nodded. "And how do you feel now that you have talked about it, hm?"

"What are you, a psychologist?" the redhead muttered sarcastically. "I feel tired. I'd like a cup of tea and then maybe… I don't know, sleep since I'm feeling exhausted?"

The blonde grumbled something that sounded slightly like 'tea is for idiots', but walked over to the kitchen area anyway.

"And I'm sleeping on the couch this time," Sasori said, pretending he hadn't heard the comment about tea.

Deidara turned around to look at him. "No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

The blonde turned back around to continue preparing the cup of tea. "I'm sleeping on the couch, Danna. My apartment, my rules. And you're the guest, yeah."

"And since I'm the guest here, I'm going to say that I don't want to sleep in the bed, but on the couch."

"Nonsense, you don't want to sleep on the couch, hm. That thing is absolutely the last place you'd want to spend the night."

"Then I'm guessing you don't want to sleep on it either. I'm going to sleep on the couch."

Deidara looked over his shoulder, grinning. "I have thought of a solution just now. Why don't we share? It is a double bed after all, yeah…"

"What!?"

"Joking, hm."

Sasori wrinkled his nose. He didn't think the joke was funny, at all. Inner-Sasori smirked evilly when he got an idea.

"Alright, I'll sleep in the bed," he said, sounding everything but happy.

He heard Deidara chuckle. "Happy to see that you've found a couple of brain cells that still work, yeah!"

"But…" the redhead continued slowly.

The blonde looked at him. "But?"

"Only if you are going to make sure I have something to do tomorrow. Something that will make sure that I won't be home. The whole day."

Inner-Sasori was very pleased with the puzzled look on the blonde's face, and laughed loudly, the whole room turning dark and gloomy.

Sasori, however, just sat there, a blank look on his face. The only sound that could be heard was the ticking of the clock.

"…Okay, hm," Deidara said eventually, walking back to the couch and putting down the cup of steaming tea in front of the redhead on the coffee table.

"Would you mind giving me some sugar? I usually have two sugars in my tea."

Deidara grumbled something, walked back to the kitchen and gave Sasori the sugar pot.

"Thank you," Sasori said, putting the right amount of sugar in his tea.

"I am not going to sleep in my underwear, Deidara-san," he said, watching the sugar dissolve.

The blonde sighed. "You can just ask for the shirt, you know, hm…"

"It seems that you understood me perfectly. Is it clean?"

"Yes, of course it is. That is…" A grin appeared on his face. "Unless someone else has slept in it. Let me think for a moment, yeah…"

Sasori rolled his eyes slightly. "You are unbelievably funny, brat."

The grin grew. "I know, yeah."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

The next morning he woke up a bit later than usual. He hadn't woken up once, surprising himself. Maybe it really had helped that he had talked about it with Deidara the previous day. Maybe. It could also just be a coincidence.

"…Yeah… …how did you get this number? …Okay, I'll go see if he's awake, hm…"

The blonde walked into the room, his mobile in one of his hands. "You awake?"

Sasori nodded.

"'kay. Someone on the phone for you. I have no idea who, hm," Deidara said, giving his the device.

"Hello?"

"Good morning," a low female voice said. "Is this Akasuna no Sasori speaking?"

He frowned. "Who is this, and why did you call me at this time?" Of course he could have been more polite, but he didn't like people who called him in the morning before he had had his cup of tea.

"I think I might have some things to say you'll be interested in, Sasori-kun."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

End of chapter

* * *

**Authors note: I have been a bit lazy, I admit. I didn't feel like spacing the words out the way I normally do. It takes a lot of time. And besides, now that I think of it, this looks fine. To me, at least. **

**Sorry about the cliffhanger... At least, I think it's a cliffhanger. Right? And you readers who read this story do still enjoy reading this, right?**


	6. Questions

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, this is a fan fiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

School is the Worst Thing Ever  
Chapter six

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

Sasori sighed as he sat down in the plain waiting room. There was only one other person waiting; an old man, reading the newspaper, oblivious to his presence.

The room was scarcely decorated - a couple of chairs along the walls, two small tables with some magazines named 'The Pink Flower', 'Travel Through Snow' and 'Women United Together for the Sake of Gardening'. A few old paintings, their colours grown dull over the years. It didn't look very promising.

He thought back to why he had agreed to come over for a conversation.

"_Do you know Orochimaru? …I'm guessing that you aren't too fond of him."_

A frown appeared on his face. He wanted to know why they had called him. That's why he came.

At least he really did have something to do now instead of going home to his grandmother's friends. Visiting unknown people who knew things about _Orochimaru._ He gritted his teeth as he thought of the teacher, anger burning deep within him. He was positive he wasn't the only one Orochimaru had given 'detention'. How dare he, how dare the filthy snake cross personal boundaries just like that!? He tried not to think of what could have- no, would have happened if Deidara hadn't come to… well… rescue him. Or of how many others had been less fortunate.

He wanted revenge. That snake deserved punishment for his acts, and if these people could help him achieve that, he wouldn't mind talking to them. He knew he would never be able to get revenge… on his own. He knew he would probably never personally go to Orochimaru and attack him, or handcuff him, or anything even like that, but others could. For him it would be enough to read a small article in the newspaper, 'pedophile caught and behind bars', or something close to that, and never see the snake again.

"Akasuna no Sasori?" the same low female voice he had spoken to on the phone asked.

He looked up and nodded, his face calm again.

The woman was not exactly what he had thought of when he had heard her speak. Her hair was painted blue, her clothes… not something his grandmother would approve of. Black pants and shirt with short sleeves, multiple belts around her waist, black high heels and at least one bellybutton and another piercing under her lower lip. And a white origami flower in her hair - possibly the only thing that wasn't black or blue.

"Please follow me," the woman said. He nodded slightly and stood up.

"It seems that I haven't introduced myself yet," she said as they walked through the corridors. "My name is Konan. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," he said, if only to be polite. "However, I wonder how you found my phone number."

Konan did not reply immediately. "I'm not authorized to answer that."

"Tch."

Sasori didn't try to ask her anything else, even though he wanted to.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

Finally they stopped walking. Konan opened a door and beckoned him to enter the room.

The room was quite dark. There was one window, but the dark curtains had been closed almost completely, preventing almost all sunlight from coming in. In the corner of the room stood a lamp, which was the only other light source available. There was a desk in the middle of the room, three chairs. One behind the desk, two in front of it.

A man was standing in front of the window, looking outside through the small opening between the curtains.

"Akasuna no Sasori… Please, take a seat," the man said, turning around and sitting down behind the desk. He had spiky ginger hair, wore simple black clothes - a long sleeved shirt and jeans - and had too many piercings on his face. About seven in each of his ears, two under his lower lip, three on each side of his nose and who-knows-where-else. Sasori didn't want to think about that.

But the most extraordinary thing about him was his eyes. He couldn't quite figure out why, though.

He heard the door close behind him as he sat down on one of the chairs.

"You are probably wondering why we asked you to come here, am I correct?" the man asked, folding his hands, resting them on his desk.

Sasori nodded.

"We wanted to ask you a couple of questions concerning a man called Orochimaru. He is your biology teacher, if my information if correct."

"Was," the redhead corrected. "I am no longer in his class."

"And why aren't you his student anymore? You seem to have a great interest in biology."

Sasori frowned. "Why do you know so much about me when I don't even know your name?" he asked.

The man chuckled, apparently amused. "Let's say I'm Pein, but everyone calls me Leader-sama, sir Leader, or just sir. I expect you to do the same as everyone else. And we have a couple of people around here who are good at finding necessary information. But now, I'd really appreciate it if I could ask you a couple of questions, and if you'd be so kind to answer them…"

Pein paused for a moment, looked into Sasori's eyes and continued. "How long have you known Orochimaru?"

"Since the day I started school here, which would be two, three months ago."

The man picked up one of his pens and wrote something down on the notepad on his desk. "And you hadn't heard of him before that day?"

"No, sir."

Pein nodded, scribbling some more on the notepad. "Have you heard of the plane accident, ten years ago, also known as the 'Third Kazekage's Murder'? You were four at the time."

"I have heard of it, but never really read much about it. It didn't interest me. But what has this got to do with Orochimaru? I fail to see a connection between a plane accident and a teacher…"

"Most people don't see a connection between the two. But…" The man put down his pen and folded his hands again. "We aren't most people here, Sasori-kun."

'We', not most people? No, they were probably loonies. Whoever was part of the 'we' had to be barking mad. The too many piercings was one thing that proved that part. But who were they, then?

"We are an organisation of people who look into cases we think aren't solved yet. It doesn't matter how strange they are, we, the Akatsuki, will solve them," Pein said, as if reading his mind. "And we have solved every case so far."

Sasori fought the urge to roll his eyes. As he had predicted. Definitely loonies.

"Back to the questions. Has Orochimaru done anything that could be classified as 'abnormal' or 'strange' that you know of?" The man had picked up his pen again, waiting for an answer to write down.

"No, sir."

Pein looked up from his notepad. "And we're done. Thank you for answering, we'll contact you if we need you again."

Sasori nodded, stood up and walked out of the room.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

Outside he quickly started looking for a telephone booth. Once he had found one he went inside and called Deidara's mobile. It ringed three times before it got picked up.

"Hello? Deidara speaking, yeah."

"Brat, do you remember what you told me last night?" He smirked, knowing the blonde probably looked very confused, thinking back and trying to figure out what he meant.

"…What do you mean, Danna? You kinda told me a lot, hm."

"You said you were going to make sure I had something to do. The whole day."

"I'm about to start working, hm. You know where I work, right?"

"No, I don't," Sasori said. The blonde didn't talk about his work a lot. He might have told him where he worked once - a couple of weeks ago during one of the lunch breaks at school.

He heard Deidara sigh. "Alright. Tell me where you are, I'll come and get you."

Inner-Sasori smirked evilly as Sasori told Deidara where he was.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

He spend the rest of the day reading. Deidara worked at some sort of club, as a bartender. When the blonde had told him that, he had asked him if that was legal. In Suna you weren't allowed to touch alcohol before the age of twenty. Deidara had shrugged and said that things were different in Konoha.

At the club Sasori sat down in a dark corner, opened the book he was currently reading and glared at anyone who dared to disturb him.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"So, Danna, hm, did I entertain you enough?"

They were at the park, sitting at the same bench as always. The sky was slowly turning pink, the temperature dropping.

Sasori nodded slightly. "I finished reading the book."

"What was it about, yeah?" Deidara asked.

"…Mechanicals."

A look of surprise came onto the blonde's face. "Mechanicals, yeah? Why? I didn't know you were interested in those things, hm."

"I…" Sasori paused, looking at the sky, watching the few cloud that were there flout around, changing from shape. "I want to make puppets that can move without strings, but still need me to move them around. I want to make them bigger, more humanlike. If they break I'll be able to repair them. They'll be art. Eternal art."

There was a moment of silence before Deidara replied. "That sounds kind of cool."

"It's true art."

"Everyone has a different opinion about things. You must really like your puppets, though."

Sasori nodded. "Yes, I do."

"Can I see them, hm?"

"…Yes."

"Now?"

The redhead shrugged. "If you want to see them right now, you'll have to go home with me. They're in my room."

Deidara stood up and looked at him. "Well, what are you waiting for, hm? Let's go!"

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"I'm home, Chiyo-baa," Sasori said as he closed the door behind him, Deidara already standing in the hall, taking off his coat.

"So this is where you live, hm? It looks a bit like an old lady's house."

The redhead nodded. "I brought a friend with me, Chiyo-baa."

His grandmother walked into the hall a second later, looking fairly surprised. "Is this the friend you sometimes stay the night at?" she asked, taking in the blonde's appearance.

"Yes, Chiyo-baa. You don't mind that he came home with me, right? He wanted to see my puppets." Sasori's usual almost-expressionless face had changed completely - he was smiling sweetly at his grandmother.

"If his parents don't mind, then I'm okay with it. Will he stay for dinner?" the old lady asked.

The redhead looked at the blonde. "Will you?"

It took Deidara a few seconds to respond. "Uh, I guess I will. I haven't introduced myself yet, hm." He held out his hand and grinned a friendly grin. The last thing he wanted was to scare the old lady. "I'm Deidara, hm."

She shook his hand. "I'm Chiyo, nice to meet you, Deidara-hm. That's a rather unusual name, though…"

The blonde laughed. "It's just Deidara, Ma'am."

"My bad, my bad. Deidara, your parents wouldn't mind if you'd have dinner here?"

"Nah, they don't mind, yeah," Deidara said, and Sasori was sure that if he had said it to anyone else he'd have grinned. Widely.

"Alright then, Sasori-chan, I'll go back to cooking. Go show him your puppets, I'll call when dinner's ready," Chiyo said, smiling at her grandson before returning to the kitchen.

Once she was out of sight Deidara looked at Sasori, an amused look on his face.

"Don't. say. a. word," the redhead muttered under his breath so that only Deidara could hear him.

The blonde grinned. "Not saying anything, Danna."

Upstairs Sasori showed Deidara some of his puppets. The blonde looked at them with great interest, telling the redhead he was very skilled at making puppets.

After a while he grinned at him. "You know, you're a bit like your puppets, hm."

"What do you mean?" Sasori asked, slightly raising an eyebrow, as he put away the puppet he had just shown Deidara.

The blonde shrugged. "You're usually just as expressionless as the puppets you showed me and- well- I don't know, you just remind me of them a bit." He grinned again. "Though when you talked to your grandmother... You smiled, hm."

Sasori frowned, annoyed. "What else was I to do?"

"I have no idea, Danna, but that smile..." Deidara chuckled shortly before continuing. "That was wicked! I didn't think you could do that, hm! You should become an actor, I bet you'd be one of the best."

"No. I am not interested in acting in any way."

"But Danna! You're so good at it, and if I didn't know you better, I'd have thought that smile had been sincere." The blonde looked at him, the hair that covered the left side of his face move slightly, so that both of his eyes were visible - and gleaming mischievous. "But I do know better, don't I, Danna?"

The redhead's frown deepened. "You know me too well, brat."

After dinner Deidara went home, thanking Chiyo for the meal and smiling at Sasori, saying he'd see him again soon. As soon as his grandmother wasn't looking anymore and Sasori closed the door, glaring slightly at the blonde, his smile turned into a grin.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

A month passed. Sasori decided to hang out with Naruto and his friends on Saturdays, even when his grandmother's friends weren't coming over at the house. He found it amusing to look at the group of teens, watch them interact with each other and, of course, see how they'd get into silly arguments because of the stupidest things.

Naruto's group of friends had grown quite a bit since the time that he'd gone to the mall with him, Ino, Sakura and Shikamaru.

Sai, who had been one of the princesses in the school play, often joined them. It seemed that he knew exactly how to push people's buttons to get them angry at him. That, and the most normal things like human emotions were something he didn't quite understand.

Nicknames had been one of those things. He had read in a book how to become friends, and that nicknames could be used to make two persons become closer. When Sakura had told him how to think of a good nickname for a person, using Naruto and Ino as examples, making their nicknames 'stupid' and 'pig', he had made a big mistake. He had called Sakura an 'ugly dog'. The next day he walked around with a nice, swollen black eye.

He also seemed to like art. Sasori had seen him drawing a couple of times, and he was actually rather good at it. Better than he had thought before he had seen some of his drawings. It was really a pity he never gave his drawings titles. They were good enough to deserve one.

Then there was Sasuke. He too had been one of the princesses in the school play. Though it seemed Naruto and him couldn't stand each other, they were actually friends. The Uchiha didn't talk a lot, he usually watched from a distance, much like Sasori himself.

Naruto had a couple more friends, but Sasori thought Sakura, Sai and Sasuke were the most entertaining.

Other than hanging out with Naruto and his friends, Sasori spend quite some time making puppets.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

On a not so sunny Sunday morning the phone rang. It was exactly four weeks since Sasori had visited Pein. When his grandmother called him, saying someone was on the phone for him, he had thought it was probably Naruto or one of his friends, to ask him when they'd hang out again, or more specifically, what time.

A bit annoyed, he picked up the phone. "Akasuna no Sasori speaking."

"Sasori-kun, we have some new information we think you'll want to take a look at," he heard Konan say.

It took him a moment to reply. "What kind of information?" he asked.

"Photographic material."

"I…" He swallowed, knitting his eyebrows together. "When can I come over to view the pictures?"

"Preferably today, if that is possible."

Sasori nodded, then mentally hit himself for nodding while on the phone. "Yes, I think I can come over in about an hour, if that's okay."

"I'll see you in an hour, Sasori-kun," Konan said before hanging up.

The redhead let out a sigh - from annoyance or maybe something else, he couldn't tell - before putting the phone down.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"Sasori-kun."

"Konan-san."

Those were their simple greetings to each other before they walked towards Pein's office. Sasori didn't feel the need to say anything else. Asking questions was a waste of time, since she wasn't going to answer them anyway. Konan apparently didn't talk a lot - at least not when he was around - which was actually a bit pleasant. Except that she didn't answer his questions. It bothered him.

When they arrived at the door which led to Pein's office, Konan opened the door for him and closed it once he was inside the room, remaining outside herself, just like the previous visit.

The room seemed to be even darker than the last time. The curtains were closed completely. Pein was sitting behind his desk and gestured Sasori to take a seat.

Once he was seated Pein shoved a couple of pictures over the desk towards him, ever so slowly. "I'd like you to take a look at these," the man said.

Sasori leaned forward slightly. On the first picture he saw a plane, ready to leave.

"That is the plane from the 'Third Kazekage's Murder' case," he heard Pein say as he looked at the next picture. People were checking in. Amongst the people he saw the third Kazekage, his eyes looking around him lazily. The man had probably thought it was going to be just another flight. Sasori was about to look at the next picture when his eyes saw something. A bunch of red hair. A bunch of red hair that looked almost identical to his own.

As his eyes looked at the face of the red-haired man in the picture he could feel Pein's eyes on him. "I can see you have found what we saw."

He nodded slightly, taking a closer look. Next to the red-haired man stood a women with straight, long brown hair. Even though she wore sunglasses he knew exactly what her eyes looked like.

"We thought you should know about this," Pein said, folding his hands. "They were two of the third Kazekage's bodyguards."

Sasori nodded again, looking at the following pictures quickly. "Thank you for showing me," he said, giving the photo's back.

The ginger haired man cleared his throat. "We also found one of the men we suspect to have been working for Orochimaru at that time on a couple of these pictures. After that day he was gone. Pretty much self explaining." Pein put the pictures into an envelope and then folded his hands again. "Thank you for coming, Sasori-kun. We'll call you when we find new information."

Sasori nodded and left the room.

His grandmother greeted him back home. He answered the usual questions before going upstairs, trying not to slam the door behind him as he went into his room.

Orochimaru, that bastard! He knew his parents were dead - he had known that since he was seven - but that they had been working as bodyguards, as the third Kazekage's bodyguards, was new information for him.

He slammed his fist into the wall, not caring that his grandmother would hear it. That old hag had known it. She had known that his parents were bodyguards and never told him the truth. He had always thought that they had 'normal' jobs. His mother a kindergarten teacher, his father a salesman. And even after their deaths, even when he had heard that they were really dead more than two years later from his grandmother's brother, she didn't tell him how they had really died. Or their real jobs. Or that she was sorry for lying to him every time he had asked her where his parents were.

"Sasori-chan, is everything alright?" his grandmother called from downstairs.

He took a few breaths to calm himself before answering. "Yes, Chiyo-baa, I wasn't watching what I was doing and knocked something onto the ground. I'm sorry I worried you, everything's fine."

'Everything's fine, right,' he thought bitterly. He had only found out his parents were most likely murdered by Orochimaru, of course everything was fine, he couldn't have been feeling any happier.

He sat down and picked up the wooden arm he was working on. He frowned when he picked up the knife - maybe he shouldn't have hit the wall that hard.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

It was just another Monday. Sasori was walking through the white corridors of the school, to his next class. Art. The only thing that truly interested him. The teacher wasn't too bad, though the other students in the class were a bunch of morons.

"Well, well, who do we have here?"

He looked up from his thinking into Orochimaru's yellow snakelike eyes. The man smiled at him, just a normal friendly smile, but his eyes didn't.

"How are you, Sasori-kun?" the man asked with fake concern.

The redhead muttered a quick 'I'm fine', causing the snake's smile to grow. "Really now, I'm glad you are. After all, it must be hard without your parents… It's a shame they died in that plane accident."

Sasori froze. How did the man know that!? He himself hadn't know about that before yesterday, how could a stranger know about it? Surely Pein hadn't told him, and his grandmother never talked about his parents with anyone.

"You…" he hissed, his eyes darkening.

"Me?" Orochimaru said, sounding surprised. "What do you mean, me?" he asked, his eyes laughing at him cruelly.

"How do you know that!?" Sasori demanded.

The snake laughed. "How do I know that?" he repeated, smirking. Sasori suddenly became aware of how empty the hallway was. "Really now… Sasori-kun, how do you think I know what, exactly?"

He clenched his fists, trying to calm himself. "You bastard, you know what I'm talking about."

Orochimaru shrugged. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't," he said, looking him in the eyes. "And what if I do? What are you going to do? Tell the police you think I did something? Without proof?"

"Are you admitting you-"

The man interrupted him before he could finish saying his sentence. "I'm not admitting anything, Sasori-kun. I have no idea what you're talking about. I have only said hello to you."

"Stop playing mind games!" Sasori yelled, frustrated that the man didn't give him any answers, angry that he made it seem that he was admitting he had killed his parents, then say he wasn't.

The man made a tutting sound, taking a step closer to the redhead, making him back away from him. "Now, now, Sasori-kun, don't yell at teachers. You did learn manners from your grandmother, did you? I was merely saying hello."

"No, you were _not_ just saying hello," he hissed.

"And who is there to proof I wasn't?" Orochimaru asked him, before smirking again. "That's right, there's currently no one other than us in this corridor. And who would they believe? A teenager with possible mental problems or a teacher with a clean record? But really, Sasori-kun, you have to go to class now. You don't want to be late, do you?"

'Mental problems!? If anyone has mental problems, it's you,' Sasori thought angrily as he quickly ran past the snake. He was already going to be late for class thanks to Orochimaru, and if there was one thing he hated it was waiting or making others wait.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

End of Chapter

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Author's Note: I'm sorry it took so long for me to write this, I had a bit of a writers block.**

**A review for the poor author that tries to write a decent story? Pretty please?**


	7. Betrayal

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, this is a fan fiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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School is the Worst Thing Ever  
Chapter seven

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"How did this happen, Sasori-kun?" the grey-haired nurse asked.

He looked at his bleeding thumb, blood sliding down the appendage slowly from a not too shallow cut at the top. "I slipped," he said, pausing slightly between the two words. "My hand slipped while carving wood in art class, and I cut myself."

The nurse pushed his glasses back with two fingers, nodding slightly before searching for his first-aid kit. "You should be more careful, Sasori-kun." the nurse said as he opened the kit and took out bandages.

The rest of the day he had to endure constant comments about his hand, even from complete strangers. He began to wonder how long it would take before people would start thinking he had cut himself on purpose. He hadn't, of course. It just happened. He was carving wood one moment, staring at his bleeding thumb the next, the wood and knife on the table. Someone had screamed like a little girl and the teacher was next to his desk within seconds and told him to go to the nurse's office.

The nurse, Yakushi Kabuto, wasn't too bad. He didn't ask too many questions, and did his job better than some people he knew. He treated him like an intelligent human being, not a blubbering idiot.

As he walked out the double doors of the building, he sighed. Even though most of the day was already behind him, he had yet to face the worst of it. His grandmother.

He decided to stop at the park, going home a couple of minutes later wouldn't hurt. After walking around for a while he sat down on the bench where he usually sat, and looked at the scenery.

"Yo, Danna." Sasori looked up from the landscape before him, towards the oh-so familiar voice.

"Good day, Deidara-san," he said, moving to the side of the bench to make room for the blonde.

"How are you, hm?" Deidara asked as he sat down next to him.

The redhead shrugged slightly. "I'm fine," he muttered, unable to hide his annoyance. "Thank you for asking," he added, for the sake of politeness, though it didn't sound very sincere. The whole day long people had been asking him unnecessary questions. He had accidentally cut his thumb, not put a gun to his head and said that he'd pull the trigger.

Deidara frowned. "You sound irritated. Does it have to do something with your finger-accident, yeah?"

"The thumb is not a finger, brat. But yes, you are correct," Sasori answered, rubbing his temples in slow circles. He closed his eyes. The next things he'd do would surely be ask him about the mishap.

"Oh, okay."

"…" Needless to say, that was a small surprise for the redhead. "You're not going to ask how it happened?"

The blonde shook his head. "Nah, I don't think you want to be asked about it, again, hm."

"That very considerate of you, _especially_ coming for you, brat." Maybe he did have a functioning brain.

"Yeah Danna! I think so too! It's a lot of fun pissing you off, but not when others have already done half of it, you know, hm?" Scratch that, he didn't.

Sasori turned his head to glare at Deidara, who was grinning broadly. "Do you have a death wish, brat?" he asked, his voice too calm for comfort.

Deidara scratched the back of his head. "No, not really. You know I didn't mean it like that, right, Danna? …You can stop looking at me like that now, okay?"

Sasori sighed, turning his gaze back to the landscape he was looking at before the blonde's arrival. Everything was silent, except for the birds chirping happily and the wind rushing through the trees.

That was, until Deidara apparently thought of something and opened his mouth again. "I just remembered, there's a math test coming up, hm."

"Oh really?" Sasori smirked at him. "Still need someone to help you with your math problems? Are you still a helpless little _brat_ when it comes to mathematics?"

A look of annoyance came onto Deidara's face. "Maybe I should have asked you about your little finger-accident, yeah… And I'm not helpless. I just thought that it'd be a good idea if I'd practice a bit before the test, hm. So how about tomorrow after school?"

"Like I said, helpless brat," Sasori muttered under his breath. "Yes, that's fine."

Even though Deidara didn't seem to have heard the comment, he saw the blonde's eyebrow twitch slightly. Inner-Sasori smirked evilly. "Alright, hm! Now that we're talking about school anyway, how are your piano lessons?"

He blinked twice before answering. "It's… nice. The teacher is a patient and quite understanding woman. I might chance to violin lessons, though. Kurenai-sensei thinks that I might have a better connection with that instrument. It a shame music doesn't last… It would be true art if… it did…" He trailed off. Something wasn't right. He looked at the blonde from the corner of his eye and something clicked inside his mind. "You were not there in art class."

Deidara grinned even wider than before. "That's right, hm."

"What did you do?" Sasori asked slowly.

He shrugged. "I'll tell you… tomorrow, yeah."

"You're doing this on purpose. You know I hate waiting." 'Stupid brat.'

Deidara laughed. "Maybe you're right! But, because I'm a nice person -" Sasori rolled his eyes at that. "- I will even show you what I did today… tomorrow, hm."

"Tch. Do as you like, insolent brat."

"Hey, I'm not insolent." Did he even know the meaning of the word? "But I have to go now." The blonde stood up and grinned at Sasori. "And I think you have to go home too, so I'll see you tomorrow, hm!"

He nodded, mentally hitting himself. His grandmother was most probably about to call the police and file a missing person's report. "Yes. Have a nice day, brat."

"Same to you, Danna," Deidara said before taking off.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"Welcome home, Sasori-chan." His grandmother smiled at him, but her eyes looked worried. As he took off his shoes, trying not to use his thumb as much as possible, his grandmother frowned slightly, her eyes even more worried than before. "What happened to your hand?" she asked when he hung up his coat.

"A small accident, Chiyo-baa, but it's nothing, really," he answered, showing her a reassuring smile. "It'll be better in a couple of days, I'm sure."

She nodded and decided not to ask any further, even though she clearly wasn't satisfied with the answer he'd given her. "Dinner's ready, Sasori-chan."

After washing his hands he sat down at the table. His grandmother said grace before they started eating, and eventually they got into a conversation concerning the local weather.

Immediately after dinner he went upstairs, to his room. He wanted to go back to working on his puppets, but it didn't feel like a good idea, with the cut in his thumb. The last thing he needed was another one.

He decided to read a book, 'No Strings Attached', instead, but every now and then he'd look up from the pages and see his favourite work-knife laying there on his desk, waiting to be picked up and used.

Eventually he closed the book. He couldn't concentrate on reading; his mind kept wandering off to crafting his puppets.

He got up from the chair he was sitting on and sighed, frustrated. The only other thing he could think of besides studying, reading or working on his puppets was sleeping.

And so he went to bed, an hour earlier than usual.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"Let me get this straight." The blondenodded, waiting for him to continue. "You went to some field -" another nod, "- took an explosive sculpture with you -" again he received a nod, "- and just blew it up!?"

Deidara hushed him quickly, looking around if anyone had heard them. "Not so loud, Danna! But yeah, I did that. It's even in the daily newspaper, hm."

Sasorishot him an annoyed look as the other gave him the Konoha Courier. "This only proves to me that you don't have a brain, brat. Have you thought of the police? They could very well arrest you for this."

"Nah, they won't. I'm not careless, you know…" The redhead chose to ignore Deidara's babbling about his intelligence and quickly scanned the newspaper for the article the blonde had mentioned.

'Sudden explosion shocks citizens - Yesterday an explosion was heard near the military training fields. No one was injured. The blast caused a moderate amount of damage to the area. The local fire-fighters are relieved that the detonation didn't cause a big fire, which is a small miracle, considering the large forest surrounding the fields. According to Uchiha Fugaku it could have been an accident. 'We have not found any evidence that the explosion was caused by someone on purpose.' Despite this the area will be under surveillance.'

"Were you out of your mind!?" Sasori demanded.

"Maybe, yeah," the blonde answered with a shrug. "It was pretty, hm."

"You imbecile…"

Deidara only grinned.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

Two weeks passed. The cut in his finger had healed perfectly, and Sasori was once again busy crafting his puppets daily.

Everything went quite well. Orochimaru didn't bother him anymore, Deidara hadn't been arrested for the bomb he'd placed near the military training fields; the police still thought it had been an accident. Sasori had also started violin lessons when his thumb had healed.

And so he started yet another ordinary school day, though it soon turned out to be a not so ordinary day when he arrived at the school, ten minutes early, as usual. He hated waiting, but also hated making others wait.

It was raining slightly. If there had been any students before him, they were probably standing under a tree, or under the bike shelter, trying to stay dry.

He was about to look for a shelter himself, when he heard a cry coming from around the corner of the school building.

"Lemme go!" he heard a young voice call out as he walked towards where he had heard the cry come from.

"Why should we, shrimp?" a much older voice sneered. "After what you did last week? I don't think so…"

Another voice spoke, "For you this situation is very.. unlucky... Heheh."

Sasori looked around the corner of the building and quickly scanned the situation. A young boy, looking no older than ten, was surrounded by three elder teenagers, around seventeen years old, wearing light-yellow clothing and wearing sunglasses.

One of them, apparently the leader, lifted the boy of the floor by his shirt. They started laughing when the boy tried to kick him, but failed.

'Bullies,' Sasori thought angrily.

"Now what are we going to do to get back at you?" the leader asked, smirking at the boy, who looked terrified.

"Let me go!" he yelled, causing the bullies to laugh again. "Wrong answer," one of them said.

Sasori had seen enough. "No, how about you let him go?" he said as he walked towards them, his eyes narrowed. Surprised the others looked at him.

"And why should we, shortie? If you can't count properly yet, we're here with three and we only need one to hold down this baby." The leader lifted the boy a bit higher.

"I won't hold back if you don't let him go right. _Now_." He knew that there wasn't a big chance of winning if he had to fight against these three. He didn't know any fighting- or self-defence moves, but it felt wrong to stand there and do nothing.

The leader frowned. "What's the worst you could do? Wet yourself?" After that the three older teenagers burst out laughing. "So, heh, unlucky!"

"I've warned you," Sasori said as he balled his hands into fists. In his mind he remembered the times Sakura punched someone, or Sasuke beat someone up, quickly thinking of a way to use that information in the following minutes.

"Here, you hold this one down. I think someone doesn't understand his place here," the leader said, giving the boy to one of the others. "How about we teach him a lesson?" he proposed, motioning for the remaining bully to help him.

Sasori decided to focus on the leader. He was probably the strongest, otherwise he wouldn't be the leader.

But before the leader was even close to him, he felt two hands forcefully pulling his arms behind his back in a painful position. "You sure are stupid, focusing on one person at the time," the leader said. "How unlucky, for you."

Even though he hated the way the bully spoke to him, he knew he was right. That had been stupid. How could he have let the other one out of his sight?

The bully stopped in front of him. "You can't get away now. You're just like him," he motioned towards the other boy, "A big baby." When he raised his fist Sasori's eyes widened and he did the first thing he could think of. He threw his head back as hard as he could, hitting the one who was standing behind him against the chest. When his grip weakened slightly, Sasori spun around and kicked the bully right where it hurt. One down.

"That was girly," the leader said, with a smirk, raising his fist again, hitting him in the stomach with it. Before he knew what had happened, he doubled over in pain. He grimaced when his head was pulled up by his hair. "Not so confident now, are you?"

Well, at least he had tried to help, and even kicked one to the floor. He was sure that if he had known how to fight, he wouldn't have been knocked down so easily. But, unfortunately, he did not know how to fight. His body relaxed slightly, he was as good as defeated. He would be lucky if he came out of this alive, he thought to himself, closing his eyes and preparing for the worst.

"Heh, giving up already?" he heard the bully say. "How weak! But that is what you are, weak! You know that you won't get away now, and that no one will come and rescue you!"

His eyes shot open and he lashed out, scratching the leader across his face. Almost instantly red marks appeared. A deep, burning anger had reawakened when he heard those words. He was not weak, and he certainly wouldn't give up.

"You little shit…" the bully muttered, venom dripping from the words. He raised his fist once more, slamming it against the side of Sasori's head. "You will pay for that, believe my words. Your unlucky day just got even more unlucky."

Before he could do anything else, the fist once again collided with his head, the sudden impact causing him to accidentally bite down on his lip. To avoid biting himself again, he clenched his yaw. Blood started to trickle down his chin as he was hit again.

"Stop it right now!" a familiar voice yelled suddenly. The hitting stopped, and the bully's grip on Sasori's hair loosened slightly, but was still too firm to break free from.

"Why should we?" he demanded. Sasori opened one eye to confirm his suspicion. Naruto was standing a couple of meters away from them. He was looking at Sasori, but soon his eyes moved to the younger boy. "Konohamaru?"

Immediately the boy's face lit up. "Naruto-nii-chan!"

The blonde's eyes darkened. "You bastards… Let both of them go or there will be serious consequences!" he shouted at them.

One of the bullies, the one Sasori had kicked to the ground, scrambled to his feet. "M- maybe we should ," he managed to stutter. The other bully nodded. "He knows how to fight, boss! Do you remember that one time…"

"Crap." The leader released Sasori's hair. "Let the kid go, too," he ordered the other bully. Within seconds they were gone out of sight.

"Are you two okay?" Naruto asked as Sasori stood up warily and Konohamaru ran over to them. They both nodded as answer to the blonde's question.

Naruto looked at Sasori and frowned. "Maybe you should go see the nurse. You're bleeding."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"How did this happen, Sasori-kun?" Yakushi Kabuto asked as he looked at his lip. Most of the bleeding had stopped already, but not all.

"A couple of older teenager were picking on a much younger boy. I could not just do nothing," the redhead answered truthfully. "I got hit, and bit my own lip."

The nurse shook his head gently. "You could have gotten help, asked others to help you." The tone of his voice was soft, caring even. "Why did you try to fight them, alone?"

"I…" Sasori looked at his feet. He didn't know why, but he felt a bit guilty. The look on the man's face, as if he was sad and disappointed, was probably what caused the feeling. "There was no time to look for others. There was no one else around, and what if I… What if I hadn't been quick enough? They could have beaten the boy up."

"Now, now, Sasori-kun, you shouldn't ask yourself 'what if'… The past is the past," the nurse said as he cleaned his chin of the blood. "But still… Look at you now, you yourself got beaten up instead."

That was true, Sasori thought bitterly. "I did the right thing."

"They hit your head, too?" Kabuto asked, looking at the side of his head where he was hit. "It looks like it's bruised." Sasori winched when the nurse touched his temple. "You might have a concussion." He pulled out a clipboard and a pen.

A concussion? It was possible, but Sasori didn't think he had one. Of course he couldn't be sure, but he didn't experience a headache, didn't feel nauseous or dizzy, hear any ringing in his ears, or any of the other symptoms.

"Well then," Kabuto said when Sasori had finished answering all of his questions. "It seems that you are fine, except for the bruises and the bleeding lip. Though I would like to see you again in maybe… three, four days, if that is possible, just to be sure. And if anything happens, if you feel sick, or get a headache, don't be afraid to come and see me, alright?"

Sasori nodded. The nurse finished tending to his lip, and after that Sasori walked out the nurse's office, to his first class. On the outside he looked calm, maybe bored, even, but on the inside he was seething.

How on earth was he going to explain his face to his grandmother!?

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

The rest of the day it rained - poured was more like it - without stopping. Sasori sighed as he watched raindrops hit the windows of the cafeteria. It sounded almost like a melody, a lullaby.

Naruto was sitting across the table, chattering about his friends and other things, but the redhead wasn't really listening. In his mind he relived the events from earlier. Why had there been almost no one around? Someone else should have heard them, besides Naruto.

And where was Deidara? That idiot, had he gotten himself arrested for blowing stuff up? Usually he'd be waiting outside the school for him, so that they could talk about the morons in art class who didn't understand anything - even though Deidara believed stupid fireworks were so-called true art, at least he understood more about art than the average student - or show each other their latest projects.

His maroon eyes looked around the cafeteria, but Deidara was nowhere to be seen. Stupid dim-witted idiot. He knew he hated waiting, so where was he?

Sasori shook his head, it didn't matter. As soon as he saw him he'd tell him what he thought of people who made others wait.

Naruto's voice stopped his train of thoughts. "Anyway, thank you for saving Konohamaru! He's the grandson of my former caretaker, so he's a bit like family to me."

"You're welcome. Does he go to this school too?" he asked.

The blonde shook his head. "No, he doesn't. He was probably here to see me when those bullies came and, well, you know the rest."

"And the bullies, do you know who they are?"

"Nope. I don't think they go to this school at all. I've never seen them before today. And you?" Naruto asked, lowering his voice to a softer volume.

He shook his head. "This is a bit odd, don't you think?"

Narutoshrugged. "Some people don't like me, because of the whole 'nine-tailed-fox-demon' thing. They attack me and people close to me sometimes." He then grinned and gave the redhead a thumbs up. "But no worries, you saved Konohamaru and everything is fine again! Well, except for your face, I guess… Sorry I wasn't there any quicker!"

Sasorishook his head. "It's alright. I'll live." At that moment the bell rang. "I guess that means we have to go," he said.

Naruto nodded. "See you soon!"

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

Chiyo looked at him, concern written all over her face. "Sasori-chan… Did something happen? You're home early, and your face…"

He forced a smile onto his face. "I'm sorry, Chiyo-baa. A couple of bullies were picking on a little boy, and I couldn't stand there watching it without doing anything…"

She nodded understandingly. "I'll go make some tea for us. There is something I want to talk about."

"A mobile phone?"

His grandmother nodded, stirring her cup of tea. "Yes, it seems that they can be very… handy in certain situations. And since you got home early today, we could go out and buy you one right now."

This was a bit of a change. His grandmother, an old lady who didn't want to hear about new technology, saying it was a waste of time and money, actually proposed to buy a mobile phone.

Even though it seemed an unreal situation at first, less than an hour later he was standing outside a shop with his grandmother, in his hand an almost newer than new mobile.

"Thank you, Chiyo-baa," he said with a smile, which she returned.

"You're welcome, Sasori-chan." She looked at the phone. "Now, if something happens, you'll be able to call someone, and if something happens people will be able to contact you. You never know… I heard something about stormy weather coming this way."

He nodded. Naruto had said something like that during the lunch break.

Together they walked the way back home. His grandmother even proposed to walk through the park on their way. Maybe, just maybe, his grandmother wasn't all that bad at times.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

The next day it was still raining. As Sasori walked through the hallways he could hear other students whispering to each other, gossiping. He didn't care that they did, they no longer talked about him. But when he accidentally heard the name 'Orochimaru', he became curious. Of course, he didn't ask them what they were talking about.

During lunch he was once again sitting at his usual table when Naruto sat down, a pleased look on his face.

"Guess what?" he asked, his eyes twinkling.

"…What?" Sasori resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Haven't you heard? Orochimaru-sensei's gone!" The blonde grinned. "How good's that? I always thought he was a little crazy, because when he walked past us he'd look at Sasuke with this weird look in his eyes and lick his lips, but now he's gone!"

"What do you mean gone?" Sasori asked, surprised by the news. He could understand that Naruto was glad, but it didn't feel right. Someone like that snake couldn't just be gone.

"Well, you know, gone, went up into thin air!" the blonde said, making big hand gestures.

Someone else sat down at the table, but it barely registered in Sasori's brain. "He's gone? Really gone? Are the police looking for him, then?" he quickly asked Naruto.

"I hope not, hm."

Sasori turned his head and glared at the person who was sitting there. "You blasted brat! Where were you yesterday!?"

"Hey Danna, happy to see me? Were you worried about me?" Deidara grinned at him, a different grin than Naruto's. "Aw, I'm touched, hm."

"Tch, no. You know I hate waiting," Sasori muttered angrily.

"So you were waiting for me?" Deidara's grin grew. "Now I'm even more touched, Danna! You _do_ care about me, hm!"

"No, I don't care about you, brat! I just hate waiting, and you know that very well!" the redhead half-yelled at the blonde.

"Right, Danna. Who are you kidding, if you didn't care about me, you wouldn't have been waiting for me, now would you?"

Sasori shot a murderous glance at him before turning away, choosing not to respond. Then he saw that Naruto was trying very hard not to laugh, pulling a rather bizarre face while trying.

"What?" he asked, irritated.

"Nothing, nothing!" the blonde insisted. "Just that you two kinda act like an old married couple, you know, arguing and stuff."

"What!?" Sasori and Deidara yelled at the same time

"No, n-nothing."

Before any of them could say anything else, Sasori's phone went off. He quickly answered it, a bit embarrassed. "Akasuna no Sasori speaking."

"Hello, Sasori-kun," he heard Konan's voice say. "We have found new evidence that Orochimaru was most probably behind the attack. Unfortunately, he has disappeared."

"I just hear that, yes. But how did you get this number?" Sasori asked.

"We called your grandmother. She gave us the number."

His grandmother? She would never give his telephone number to people she didn't trust, he was sure of that. Never mind. He'd ask his grandmother later.

"Thank you for letting me know," Sasori said, to be polite, and hung up. With a scowl he put away his phone. They had evidence, but didn't know where he was, because he had just disappeared? That couldn't be a coincidence. How…  
"You have a phone?" he heard Naruto ask, causing him to look up from his thinking. He nodded, causing the blonde's eyes to light up. "I didn't know that. What type?"

The redhead shrugged and handed Naruto his phone. "I have no idea what kind of model it is. My grandmother bought it for me yesterday."

"It's a nice one," Naruto commented as he looked at the device. "How about we give each other our phone numbers?" he asked, pulling out his own cell phone.

Deidara nodded. "That's a good idea, hm."

After exchanging their numbers they went their own ways, to their next classes.

Sasori sighed as he walked through the hallways, to his last class. He silently cursed Konan for calling him during the lunch break. He had a hard time concentrating in class, his mind kept going back to their short conversation. Orochimaru disappeared on the day Pein and Konan had found evidence. Were they working together? No, that couldn't be it. What if…

He stopped walking, suddenly painfully aware of the empty hallway he was standing in. What if there was someone who worked together with Orochimaru and had heard of the evidence, and helped him disappear? But who would want to help him?

Suddenly two arms grabbed him from behind and pushed his against the wall, pulling his right arm behind his back and hold his left one up against the wall. His breath hitched. Was it Orochimaru?

"Heheh, who do we have here? How unlucky for you!" He almost felt relieved when he heard the bully's voice. Almost.

"What do you want?" he asked. As response his arm was pulled farter up his back.

"Well genius, what do you think? Revenge for what you did yesterday, dumbass!" he heard another voice mock. So the leader had not come alone. How brave.

"You must be very strong and confident, coming here with your little help-" he stopped talking and bit his lip to stop himself from crying out loud when his arm was pulled up even more.

"Let's see how tough you really are," the leader said, his voice low and menacing. With a snap of the bully's fingers Sasori was on the ground, his arm around his now sore abdomen. 'They really have a lot of original moves,' he thought sarcastically as he was pulled back onto his feet by his hair.

"What do you have to say now, huh?" the other bully spat in his face, while the leader stood behind his helper, smirking at him.

"Fuck off," Sasori snarled angrily.

"Boss, what should we do with him?" the helper asked his leader.

The sick smirk only grew. "Let's show him how unlucky he is." The next moment he was slammed against the wall again, but with more force this time. His eyes widened when a fist came flying his way, and quickly moved his head to avoid it. He then raised his hand to the bully's head and tried to hit him, but failed when his hand was grabbed and pressed against the wall.

"We can't have that happening, because you are not going to be lucky today," the bully laughed cruelly and looked at his hand for a moment. "Maybe we should start with your hands."

Sasori tried to pull his hand back, but the bully's grip only got stronger. He needed both of them. He needed his hands for his art.

The leader chuckled. "You don't like that idea, do you? How unlucky!"

He glared at him. "Things like these are not allowed on this school, nor anywhere else as far as I know," Sasori said, once again trying to pull his hand back. This time he used his still free hand to hit the bully, but sooner than he thought his up-until-then free hand joined his other one.

The leader walked over to him and lowered his face to his eyelevel. "I have an idea. How about you beg us to let you go and say you're sorry for what you did, and that you'll never do it again, and then we will try to not hurt you too much."

"Never."

With a sigh of fake remorse, the leader walked back to the place he had been standing previously. "Well… That's unlucky for you then… But maybe… Just maybe we'll give you another chance when you've changed your mind." He turned to the other bully. "You know what to do."

A moment later he was pulled forward, a knee made contact with his stomach and he once again fell to the floor, thanks to the leader who had decided to push him.

He found out that they did have more moves when he felt a foot come down on his hand. Hard.

"Are you going to give up?" the leader asked, looking him in the eyes. When he shook his head the foot once again came down on his hand, and his lip started bleeding. He hadn't even noticed that he was biting on his lip until the iron-like taste came into his mouth.

Just when the helper raised his foot again, a voice called out. "Stop that immediately!"

Shocked the bullies stopped and looked at the newcomer. "But-" the leader began, but was quickly cut off.

"No 'buts', young man. Step away from the boy!" Yakushi Kabuto said, walking towards them.

The bullies ran away as fast as they could, around the corner.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"It seems that trouble really likes you, Sasori-kun," the nurse said as he looked at his hand. "Were those the same bullies as yesterday?"

"Yes."

Kabuto gave him a sympathetic smile and reached for his first-aid kit. "Those students have been causing more trouble lately. I'll talk to the principle about them when I'm done cleaning and bandaging your hand. They won't do something like this again."

His hand, though it didn't look too well, wasn't seriously injured. It did look a bit swollen, and was bleeding from a couple of small wounds. All he needed to do, according to Kabuto, was let the wounds heal and not use the hand too much.

When he was done with his hand, the nurse smiled at him. "I'll go get some new supplies and talk to the principle. Would you mind waiting here until I return? I still need to check on your lip."

Sasori nodded, even though he hated waiting.

"I'll try to be back as soon as possible." And with that said the nurse walked out the room, closing the door behind him.

Less than a minute later his mobile rang. "Akasuna no Sasori speaking," he said when he had picked up the phone.

"Sasori? It's Uzumaki Naruto! You'll never guess who I just saw." He could almost see the blonde waving with his arms and making big gestures. "It was one of those bullies from yesterday! Remember, those dressed in piss-yellow and wearing sunglasses?"

"What about them?" Sasori asked.

"You'll never guess, so I'll tell you. Did you know that they…" He paused for the dramatic effect. "That they don't even go to this school? Yeah, I know that you'd never have guessed that, but I did some research and- Sasori? You still there?"

The redhead nodded, even though he was on the phone. "Yes, I'm listening."

"Oh, okay. Anyway, I did some research and Sasuke helped a little, but I did most of it, and found out that they are probably over eighteen and not going to this school, not going to any school in the region, and well… We were about the only ones who saw them. I guess that was what I wanted to say. Yup. I better go now, am not really allowed to call during toilet breaks. See ya!"

Sasori put away his phone, once again in deep thoughts. If those bullies weren't going to the school, it wouldn't help if Kabuto talked to the principle. That would mean that he had lied to him, but why would Kabuto lie? He seemed such a… well… nice person. He didn't look like someone who would lie.

Five minutes passed and the nurse hadn't returned. Sasori got up from the chair he was sitting on and walked towards the door when he heard Kabuto's voice, coming from just outside the room. It appeared that he was talking to someone.

"Yes, of course. One dosage of… Yes, I've checked twice, sir," the nurse said, pausing between his sentences. "There won't be any time for him to run away, the drug will immediately knock him out, and then I'll bring him to you, Orochimaru-sama."

Sasori could feel his heart pounding wildly in his throat as he stepped away from the door. Kabuto had lied to him. He was working together with the snake. He had probably even helped him 'disappear'.

The redhead looked around in the room. He needed to get away from the nurse quickly.

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Kabuto put away his mobile and looked at the syringe in his other hand. He smirked as he checked the dosage again. If anything went wrong Orochimaru-sama would be angry. Very angry.

The boy knew too much, and with that detective nosing around…

"Well then, Sasori-kun," he said as he opened the door, hiding the syringe behind the new bandages he brought with him. "I talked to Tsunade and…" He stopped talking and a deep frown appeared on his face.

The window was open, and the boy was gone.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"…And then I opened the window, went out, started running and bumped into you," Sasori said. He was sitting on the ground near the 'secret place for class skipping', facing Deidara, who had a thoughtful look on his face.

"So you were attacked by a couple of bullies who don't go to this school, hm?" He nodded. "And the first time Naruto came and saved you, and then Kabuto, who actually works together with Orochimaru, who is the main suspect of an old murder case?"

The redhead nodded again. "Those bullies were…"

"Strong, yeah?" Deidara asked with a twinkle in his eye. "Maybe you were just weak."

He glared at him. "I am not weak, you bird-brained idiot."

The blonde grinned. "Well, my birdie-brain tells me -" his voice suddenly became serious, "- that it was all a set-up."

Sasori raised his eyebrow. "A set-up…?"

"A set-up. From what you have told me, those guys did not just try to hit you wherever they could. They don't sound like 'normal' bullies. I might be blonde, but I do know a thing or two about fighting, yeah."

"Why?"

Deidara shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they're total assholes. But here's how I think it went, yeah." He picked up a stick and started drawing stick figures as he spoke. "Orochimaru's probably pissed because he couldn't… eh… rape you, and that you know more than you should. So he'd have to get rid of you somehow, and since Kabuto is the school nurse, he had a nice opportunity to do so. All he had to do was wait for you to get injured and go to the nurse. The thumb thing was an accident, right?"

Sasori nodded, then shook his head. "Yes- No- Maybe. I did see Orochimaru before the mishap and he said some things that got me thinking. I couldn't concentrate during art class and that's when I slipped with the knife."

The blonde nodded understandingly. "That would make him the main factor of the injury, I think, hm. You cut yourself accidentally and went to Kabuto, just as planned."

"Wait a second, how could he have known I'd get so distracted that I would not be able to concentrate?" Sasori asked.

"I dunno, hm," Deidara said, shrugging again. "Maybe he guessed that part or just hoped that you would get injured because he had confused you. Anyway, -" He looked back at the stick figures he'd drawn in the sand. "- Kabuto then only had to wait for the right moment to drug you, or something similar to that, and take you to Orochimaru. Those bullies probably had the mission to injure you, so that you'd have to go to Kabuto, again, yeah. Then-"

Sasori interrupted him. "Why did he wait? Why didn't he drug me the first time I visited him? If he wanted to get rid of me, he should have done that as soon as possible, or I could have spoken to someone, maybe the authorities, and that was what he wanted to prevent, if I'm correct."

"Maybe because he likes toying with people, hm? You kind of trusted Kabuto, didn't you?" the blonde asked, looking at him carefully.

"No, I…" Sasori bit his lip. "Yes," he admitted, not meeting the blonde's gaze. "I trusted him. It was a mistake. I was naïve, I thought he didn't work for - wasn't able to work for - Orochimaru. I never actually considered that possibility up until now… I shouldn't have trusted so easily."

"Nothing's wrong with trusting people, he chose to betray your trust. What an ass, hm," Deidara said, muttering the last part angrily. "But anyway, you trust me, don't you? Otherwise, would you have told me all of this?"

Sasori couldn't do anything else but nod slowly. He trusted the blonde, if only a little. He shouldn't trust him - _anyone_, not now. It'd only get him hurt.

"Back to my explanation of Orochimaru's evil plan, yeah. He wanted you to go to Kabuto, and you trusting him would be like a bonus. So he sent the bullies and made them attack you, so that you'd get injured and go to nurse-Kabuto. Then he made Kabuto 'save' you today from them, for the whole 'trusting' part, and later he'd drug you, bring you to Orochimaru and get rid of you." Deidara looked one last time at his stick figures before erasing them with his foot. "And that's what I think, hm."

Neither of them said a word for a couple of minutes, lost in their own thoughts.

Sasori was the first to break the silence. "What about Naruto-kun? The first time, he… showed up." Saying that he had rescued him made him sound weak. He wasn't weak, just not prepared. And if what Deidara had thought of was true, it had been an unfair fight from the start anyway.

"I can't really explain that… Destiny or something?" The blonde got up and brushed off his clothes. "Shouldn't we go tell this to the police? I gotta admit I don't like that idea, but this whole situation is pretty much freaky."

Sasori jumped up when a certain name ran through his head. Pein. He was investigating the case, and with this new information…

Just as he reached for it, his phone went off. "Akasuna no Sasori speaking," he said, a frown making its way onto his face, though it quickly disappeared again.

"Sasori-kun? This is Dr. Hyuuga, from the Konoha hospital. I'm calling you because of your grandmother."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

End of Chapter

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**Author's Note: First of all, a thank-you to the person who beta-ed this chapter, Ivvy-sama. Thank you for your help with the mistakes!**

**I'm very sorry for the long wait, I had hoped to have updated sooner, but, unfortunately, I couldn't. I did my best, and hope you enjoyed reading it, even though it took me about a month to update! (A month is too long, I know.)  
And umh... If you'd like to make me a happy writer, there is a nice soft-purple-blue-ish button with the word 'review' written on it. Could you maybe click it and tell me what you thought of the chapter?**

**It doesn't bite. I promise!**


	8. Uncertainty

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, this is a fan fiction. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

School is the Worst Thing Ever  
Chapter eight

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"How is she, hm?" Deidara asked as Sasori walked out the hospital, towards him. He shook his head slowly, making the blonde bite his lip.

"I can't believe it…" the redhead muttered.f

"Do you…" Deidara trailed off, thinking about what would be the best thing to say considering the current situation. "Do you want to stay over at my place tonight?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I wouldn't want to cause you any trouble."

"Are you kidding me, yeah!?" the blonde exclaimed. "This is one of those times that pals help each other out. Of course you won't be causing me any trouble, hm!"

'_Pals…? Friends?' _Sasori repeated both words a couple of times in his head. Why did Deidara say that? They weren't friends, or pals. Did he think they were? They argued a lot. Good friends do not argue constantly. _'But so do Sasuke and Naruto, and those two are friends.'_ He shook his head to stop himself from thinking about the subject any longer. He didn't have time for that at the moment.

"If you insist," he said. "But I would have to go home first to get some things."

Deidara nodded understandingly as they started to walk over to where he had parked his bicycle. "So… Do you want to go somewhere? I mean, you probably don't want to stay here any longer than necessary."

"I have to go somewhere. Alone. I'll be at the park in an hour." Sasori looked at him. "Don't make me wait, because I-"

"Yeah, I know, you hate waiting and making others wait. Don't get in any trouble. And if you do, you've got my phone number, hm."

After that they both went on their way.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"Do you have an appointment?" a receptionist asked him as she chewed on her bubble gum lazily. "Cuz if you don't, you have to make one… Or call us and make one… Or just wait until someone has time for you, but I don't think so, cuz you look like a kid. Kids don't come here, you know… Go home and play with your toys, 'kay?"

"Why don't you go tell Pein that Sasori's here and he wants to talk to him, _now_." Sasori tapped his fingers on the desk impatiently.

The receptionist looked at him oddly as she started playing with her multiple-coloured hair - pink, blue, neon-purple and was that green? - before deciding to answer him. "Umh… Sas-soar-ey? Is that your papa? Maybe he should come here himself instead of sending you here… How old are you? Ten? Eleven? Maybe nine?"

This had to be his lucky day. "No, I'm _Sasori_, and for your information, I'm fourteen thank you very much. Now stop wasting my time and just tell Pein."

"No can do… I think you have to go home now, cuz your parents will worry about you if you don't. But I'll take a look to see if Pein's free." She turned to her computer and started typing while she continued blabbering. "I don't think he'll be free, cuz he's a busy person, so when I say he's not free, you'll leave, oka-" She suddenly stopped and stared at her screen in disbelieve. "He's… free? He doesn't have any appointments at the moment? How's that possible…?"

Sasori smirked, still irritated beyond words. "Tell him… that I want to talk to him… right _now_," he said slowly, just in case she wouldn't be able to understand him otherwise. The brain-dead imbecile.

She mumbled a couple of words before she reached for the phone and pushed some buttons. "Hello, sir Pein? I'm sorry to disturb you, but there is this kid who has to be only eight, cuz he's so tiny and young and stuff, and he says he wants to talk to you and that his name is Say-swore-he. I don't think you know him or have time for him, so maybe someone should call his parents, cuz they'll be very worried, cuz he's only eight and-" She stopped her rambling and a look of surprise appeared on her face. "You do know him? Is he your son?" Her initial surprise turned into shock. "I'm sorry, sir Pein, sir! I just assumed- …I didn't mean to offend you or something, I was just saying that… Well I thought- …Yes sir. I understand, sir Pein, sir." She put the phone back into its holder with a sigh.

"And I really thought he was his son, cuz he has to be," she muttered, looking at Sasori from the corners of her eyes.

"For how long have you been working here, Miss...?" he asked, a dangerous edge to his voice.

The young lady blew a bubble which exploded in her face; she started scraping it off with a brightly coloured fingernail before answering. "Umh... a couple of weeks, I think... Not that it's any of your business, kid."

"So…" he bent over and brought his face close up to her, "and for how long exactly did you intend to keep this job? Miss Sticky?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"That there's bubble gum all over your stupid face."

"And what if there is?"

"It is disgusting. But you're right," he stepped back and wrinkled his nose, "it suits you."

Miss Sticky stared at him, her mouth wide open in shock. Thankfully for her, Konan showed up at that moment, saving her from more trouble.

"Sasori-kun, will you follow me please."

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"Is there something you want to talk about, Sasori-kun?" Pein asked as he sat down on a chair.

"Tch. Why else would I be here?"

The man cleared his throat. "I apologize for the receptionist. Her behaviour was very rude towards you. It won't happen again." He too, sat down on his own chair, nearly knocking over a pot which contained a small sunflower as he did so. "Anyway," he began after making sure the flower was still in one piece, "what did you want to talk about?"

"That bastard Orochimaru, and his little helper, Kabuto."

Pein raised an eyebrow. "Kabuto? Are you sure?"

"As sure as I can be," Sasori answered, "I heard him talk to Orochimaru on the phone."

"You eavesdropped? And you seemed to be such a well mannered boy…" A sly grin appeared on the ginger-haired man's face. But it quickly disappeared when he cleared his throat again. "Anyway, let's get back to the subject. Kabuto, you say… Yakushi Kabuto?"

Sasori nodded. "The school nurse. If I had not overheard the conversation, I would have been gone right now. Drugged and kidnapped."

"A school nurse as disguise, very clever." Pein sighed. "Not that anyone has ever even thought of saying that Orochimaru was, or is, dumb." He pressed a button on his phone, which was almost buried under the paperwork on his desk. "I would like all the information we have on Yakushi Kabuto and a fix on his location." He turned to Sasori. "Do continue."

He told him everything. Well, almost everything. He hadn't told him that Orochimaru had tried to rape him, and had drugged him.

"…and that's when I opened the window and went out," he concluded.

"Hm…" Pein nodded as he looked through the files he had just received. "And that happened how long ago, exactly?"

"Less than three hours."

The man turned a couple of pages. "How's your hand?"

"It's fine." After all, it didn't hurt anymore. He couldn't understand why it had been bandaged at all.

"Seems like they didn't want you to really get hurt. Must have been a professional job."

The door flew open and a young man walked up to the desk. "Sir leader, sir! Pardon for the intrusion!" Sasori could easily tell he was nervous. "We have found Yakushi Kabuto, sir! In the lower district, sir!"

"Good job," Pein said calmly, "keep an eye on him. Dismissed."

The young man was gone within a second, causing Pein to chuckle slightly. "Those new ones are all so afraid of me. It's quite amusing." He shook his head. "Anyway, I would like you to visit our sketch artist. I want to know more about those bullies, and with a sketch of them we'll be able to do a lot more."

"How long will it take?"

"I hope you'll be free for the next hour, because I don't think we're done yet."

Sasori looked at the clock; only ten minutes until he'd have to be at the park. "Could I make a phone call first?"

Pein nodded before going back to reading the files.

He excused himself before slipping out of the room and taking out his mobile.

"Deidara, yeah."

"It's Sasori."

"Are you in trouble, hm?"

"No, but I need some more time before I'll be at the park. Another hour."

There was a silence before he heard Deidara say, "…yeah, okay. I'll be there then, hm. See ya!"

Click. He put the device back into his pocket before knocking on the door of the office.

"Well then," Pein said, closing the files as Sasori walked back into the room, "how about we go see the sketch artist now?"

They left the office and walked through a labyrinth of corridors.

"He's a nice guy, really. I would know - he's my brother." Pein said as they took a right turn, farther into the unknown.

The man bore a striking resemblance to Pein, though his ginger hair was longer, his piercings on other places and his face was slightly different, even a bit feminine. One could easily see the two were relatives.

"Kein, I have a job for you. This is Sasori-kun. Sasori-kun, this is Kein, my younger brother."

Kein smiled as they sat down on the chairs in front of the desk. "Let me guess, do I have to draw some criminal again?"

Pein nodded with a frown. "Fake bullies, actually. They most probably work for Orochimaru. Anyway," he stood up, "I have to get back to my office. Do your work, give me a call when you're done."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"Thank you for your cooperation. The sketch has been scanned, copied and sent to some people who will be able to find them. "

Sasori nodded. He was back in Pein's office, sitting in the same chair he always sat in.

"If there's anything we can help you with at the moment, to return the favour of you helping us by giving the descriptions of the bullies…" The man trailed off, in deep thought for a moment. "Anyway, if you have thought of something, we'll see what we can do. Give me a call anytime."

"Actually," Sasori said, "I have already decided."

"Oh?" Pein gave him a curious look. "Made up your mind already? You must know very well what you want, then."

"I want to learn how to fight and defend myself," he said without hesitation.

The ginger-haired man nodded approvingly, an almost pleased look on his face. "That's something I can grant you very easily." He looked at his wristwatch. "You'll be hearing from me tomorrow. I have a meeting in ten minutes, and you should probably be going now, as well."

Sasori stood up and walked to the door, ready to leave, but Pein gestured him to stay.

"Before you go I must ask you a question of great importance," the man said.

"What question?"

Pein stood up from his chair and walked towards the window, making sure the curtains were completely closed before walking back to his desk, a look of seriousness imprinted on his face.

"Does or does this not make the room more vibrant?" he asked, gesturing at the sunflower.

Sasori gave him a blank look. "Excuse me?"

The man took a deep breath. "Does this flower make this room seem more… welcoming?"

Was that a trick question? Sasori looked into the man's eyes. When he did not find a hint of deceit, he answered, "No."

"…So I see…" Pein muttered after a deafening silence. "That's what I told the idiot, but no, he would not listen. He and his stupid so-called artistic mind!"

So-called artistic mind? The only one Sasori knew who had one of those was Deidara, but surely he wouldn't give Pein a sunflower. Would he? After all, a sunflower didn't have much of a 'boom' in it.

"You can go now."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"Do you want to talk about it?" Deidara asked from the other side of the coffee table.

"About what?" The cup of tea in Sasori's hands had been long forgotten, the once warm liquid cooled down quite a bit, but either he did not notice, or didn't care.

"Your know… Your grandmother…?"

The clock ticked rhythmically, the only other sound disturbing the serene silence being the breathing of the two teens.

Maroon eyes narrowed slightly. "I'll get over it." Sasori stated, putting down his teacup.

"Is that all, hm?" The tone of surprise was what caught the redhead off guard. There was nothing much to talk about, as far as he was concerned, so why was Deidara asking that?

"What do you mean?"

"Well… Your grandmother, she's…"

Sasori shifted and picked up his cup again, effectively cutting the blonde off. "I don't want to talk about it."

"You'll have to eventually, hm."

"Eventually." Sasori agreed. "Eventually is not now." He took a sip of his tea before a frown formed in his face. "This tea is cold," he said, stating the obvious.

Deidara sighed. "Of course it is, hm… You can be so dumb sometimes I almost think you are just as blond as I am, or even worse."

"Am not."

"Are too."

Sasori let out an angry breath, looking at his tea. He refused to go that low and have such a pointless and childish argument.

"Just…" Deidara began as he got up and walked over to Sasori. "Let me get you a new, warm cup of tea." He reached out to take the cup, brushing over redhead's fingers in the progress of doing so. Sasori's breath got caught in his throat as he found himself looking into the azure-blue eyes of his… friend? Companion? He truly didn't know anymore.

He swallowed and tried to say something, but only got his lips to move without a sound. Why was it all so difficult? He looked away, suddenly aware of how close they were and pulled back his hands.

"I… There is no need for that. I'll drink the tea as it is."

Deidara shrugged and walked into the kitchen area. "Okay."

What had just happened? He never got nervous, not around anyone.

"Do you want to eat something, hm?"

He shook his head. "No, thank you. I'm not hungry." His mind was spinning. It had been a very… _interesting_ day. "I'm going to sleep." He felt tired. Tomorrow it would all make sense. Hopefully.

Deidara hm-ed from the kitchen as he put away a small box of tea. "And where are you going to sleep?"

"Your bedroom. You'll take the couch. As usual." Sasori said as he got up. He felt no need to argue - he was too tired.

"Don't forget to brush your teeth, Danna," the blonde said teasingly, "the amount of sugar you put in your tea was enough to kill anyone who's normal."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"I'm back, Chiyo-baa."

His grandmother looked up from her book. "Why, Sasori-chan, I had almost thought you had forgotten all about me!" she said with a smile.

Sasori shrugged and sat down on a chair next to the hospital bed. How could he forget about his grandmother, when she was always there asking annoying questions about his health and such. "You are my caretaker and grandmother. One does not forget those facts easily."

"Thank heavens for that, otherwise I would be stuck here all day long without anyone to talk to." his grandmother mused. "How was school today?"

"It was alright." he said casually, looking out of the window. No need to worry his grandmother by telling her how irritating he found most of his classmates, especially the ones that asked about how she was.

"They asked too many questions, didn't they?"

"…Why do you think that?" he asked, studying his grandmother's face.

She sighed tiredly. "Oh Sasori-chan, anyone who lives with your for long enough will find out about your likes and dislikes, even if you try to hide them. I know how much you hate being questioned."

Sasori nodded slowly, knowing she was right. "…What did the doctors say?"

The smile reappeared. "They said that if everything goes alright today, I'll be able to go home tomorrow or the day after that. Thank goodness it was just a…"

"Just a what?" Sasori asked, not really paying attention. A little brown feathered bird had just flown by. One that was not often seen. "Did you lose the medical term, Chiyo-baa?" He turned his head, half expecting a 'yes' to follow from his grandmother.

'_It was something with an A, I think. …maybe a C… …Yes, that's the word. You're still young, you remember things a bit better than I do. In my days that's what they told me.'_

His eyes widened in shock. His grandmother was clutching at her chest, breathing heavily, her mouth open. "Chiyo-baa?"

'_Chiyo-chan, they'd say, your memory is a gift. Treasure it, you can learn and remember remarkable things with it.'_

He wasted no time pressing the alarm button, while checking her pulse. This was not good, this was not good at all.

'_Of course, those days are gone now. I'm old, and even my memory is starting to grow older and weaker.'_

Medics rushed into the room and Sasori moved back to make space for them.

"Code blue!"

"Get me a crash cart!"

"Charge to 200."

"All clear!"

Nothing.

"Charge to 300."

"All clear!"

Nothing.

"Charge to 360!"

"All clear!"

Nothing…

"Damn it!"

Sasori felt nothing as he watched the medics continue to try and keep his grandmother alive, he didn't even hear one of them talk to him until they tapped his shoulder.

"Kid, maybe you should come outside the room with me…"

He looked at the medic and nodded slowly before falling into the darkness.

The room was spinning. Everything was spinning. Sasori closed his eyes and brought a hand up to his forehead. He could feel a headache coming up.

"Sasori-Danna?" The bedroom door was opened and Deidara stepped inside. "I heard this really loud noise and- why are you on the floor, hm?"

"What does it look like, brat?" Sasori snarled as he sat up.

"You… fell out of the bed?"

The redhead glanced at him, his eyes narrowed. "Well look-y there, we have a genius with us in the room."

Deidara crossed his arms. "I was just asking, yeah. _Someone_ didn't sleep too well."

As Sasori got up and sat down on the bed, images from his dream went through his head.

"Did I say something wrong?" Deidara asked, his irritated expression faltering. "Did you have a nightmare, hm?"

"Get out."

"But-"

Sasori looked up angrily and pointed at the doorway. "Get. Out."

"Alright, alright. I'm going, hm." Deidara muttered, his irritation fully back again. "Get some sleep. I bet you need it, mister Rarw-I'm-angry."

As the door closed Sasori lay back onto the bed with a sigh. It felt like it was going to be a long night.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"Pass the butter please." It was morning, an hour before school would start. Sasori didn't feel too fresh after an almost sleepless night. Every time he closed his eyes fragments of his nightmare went through his mind. Eventually he had fallen asleep, only to be rudely awakened by the ringing of the alarm clock. He could still hear it in the back of his mind, and it was giving him a headache.

Deidara mumbled a groggy 'here' as he gave him the butter before taking a few big gulps of his coffee. "What are you going to do now, hm? You know, with Orochimaru and Kabuto…?" he asked.

Sasori shrugged. "I do not think it's in my place to do anything about it."

"Have you talked to the police?"

"They will be taken care of." Pein had someone following Kabuto around, and surely Orochimaru knew better than to show his face again so soon after disappearing.

"Hm… Alright. You'll be going to school today, then?"

"I can't think of a reason why not."

Deidara looked at him a bit uneasy. "Well… You know, your grandmother…"

"I can't afford to have such a thing affect my learning process." Sasori said with a raised eyebrow, wondering why on earth his companion thought he wouldn't go to school because of the recent events.

"Okay, hm…" muttered the blonde, reaching for his mug.

A fairly short silence followed, disturbed by the sound of knives on tableware, cups being picked up and put down and the shallow breathing of the two.

"How's your hand, hm?" Deidara asked, trying to start a conversation.

Sasori touched the bandages, unaware of doing so. "It's fine." He paused to look out of the window for a moment. "Nothing to worry about." He looked him in the eye with a stern gaze that clearly said 'Stop talking to me. I am trying to eat.'.

The blonde hm-ed, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "If you say so, _Danna_." he replied, saying the title mockingly, as if daring him to say the unspoken words aloud.

"I did say so, _brat_." Sasori countered venomously, hissing the nickname snappily as his eyes narrowed to slits and his brows furrowed with irritation. "Excuse me for saying this, but we have less than an hour to get to school. I suggest we make sure we'll be there on time."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

A young woman with brown hair and dark eyes stood before the class, a small but nervous smile on her face.

"Hello everyone," she began, looking around, "my name is Shizune, and I am your new school nurse. I hope we'll all get along nicely."

The class murmured in agreement, some enthusiastically, others like they couldn't care less.

"Some of you may already know me, since I was the principal's secretary. So from now on, if you are feeling ill, or are wounded, fell during practise or in the halls, don't be afraid to stop by the nurse's office." The students looked at her peculiarly as she let out an uneasy laugh; 'Who do you think you're talking to?' - 'Do we look like four year olds?' - 'Ghee, you can treat us like our age.'.

Kakashi looked up lazily from his book - Icha Icha Tactics - and said, "Thank you, Shizune-san. I think they'll know where to find you. You better go now, there are still more classes to introduce yourself to."

The new nurse nodded before quickly walking out of the classroom as the teacher picked up a crayon and wrote a few sentences on the black board. "Today we're going to learn about the subjunctive, class. Open your book on page 103. I hope you have done your homework, or you'll be in trouble."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"Man, Kakashi-sensei sure can be boring." Hidan said as they walked out of English class, towards the lockers, "Especially when he's talking about sub-junk… tiva-something-vegetation…"

"Subjunctive." Sasori corrected.

"Whatever, it all sounds like the same shit to me." The silver-haired teen muttered, putting his hands in his jacket's pockets. "I just remember," he said a moment later, "Deidara told me to tell you something."

They had already reached the lockers, and Sasori was about to put his books into his. "What did he say?"

"Somethin' about skipping class because it's boring and that if there was any trouble, you have his number. Sounds like he's concerned that you'll be kidnapped by a mad scientist! Hah! Probably because if anyone gets to kill you, it'll be him because he loves to make things explode. He would never let a chance like that pass up."

The redhead wrinkled his nose. "That un-artistic brat. How can an explosion be beautiful? It's gone in a split-second."

"Yeah, whatever you say. You two are both obsessed about art. Art is for pansies and- Ouch!" He was cut off by a foot kicking against his shin, hard. "Damn it! Why do you have to do that!?"

Sasori shrugged. "You're talking too much. My ears were starting to hurt. What were you saying?"

"Nothing." Hidan mumbled, adding in a much lower voice, "Stupid artists. All the same, the lot of 'em."

Sasori closed his locker, pretending not to hear what the other said until he spoke again in a much clearer voice. "Anyway, I heard about your grandmother. Man, that must really suck."

Much to his annoyance other students in the hallway stopped to listen, curious to hear the full story so that they could tell their friends.

Hidan continued talking, not caring that others could hear him. "Who's going to take care of you now and cook your dinner? I dunno what I'd do if I was in your situation. But ehh…" Hidan patted him on the back roughly. "I gotta go now. Class. Good luck, you know, with everything. See ya."

As soon as he had finished talking he was gone. Oh great. He could hear everyone whispering to each other, shooting questioning looks in his direction. Great. Just. Great. He let out a low sigh of frustration before taking off to his next class. Could his day get any worse than this?

He mentally kicked himself during lunch for thinking that. Several boys were standing around his lunch table, obviously waiting for him.

"Akasuna, are you alright?" one asked as he pushed one boy away to sit down. As reply he glared at him. Immediately the boy backed away. "It's just a question."

"I'm fine." Sasori said, still glaring.

"Are you sure? After what happened to your grandmother?" Another boy said. Sasori remembered him. Kiba, who played the dog-cat in the school play.

Before he could answer Neji popped up. "It must have been her destiny."

"How horrible. I mean, man…"

"That's tough luck, dude…"

"Yeah, life's unfair. I'm glad I have my parents."

"Wow…"

Sasori exhaled, trying not to snap. "I would appreciate it if you'd all leave."

Just then a bright orange mask appeared. "Poor Sasori-san! Now that his grandmother has died, will he be put in a foster family?" Tobi asked.

The other boys looked at him, shocked. "Tobi… You can't say things like that…"

"Oh?" The masked boy turned towards the one who said that. "Really? Tobi was just asking a question that everyone wants to know the answer to, nothing more and nothing less."

"Well… He has a point there, but it still was harsh…"

"Tobi thinks Sasori-san should answer."

"I kind of do too." one of the other boys said. "Will you be put in a orphanage?" he asked.

"Are you going to leave this school? Or even going to move out of town?"

"When will her funeral take place?"

Sasori stood up abruptly, in doing so nearly knocking over the chair, and slammed his fists onto the table. "Enough. Shut up, all of you!"

Everyone backed away from him, shocked.

"Will you lot leave me the fuck alone!? Did I ever insinuate that I wanted you bunch of morons to stand near me, ask me about things that are none of your bloody business? I'll answer that using very small words so you'll be able to understand me. No. I. Did. Not."

"But… But we were just worrying and wondering…" One of the braver boys said.

Sasori laughed dryly. "Hah! Worrying and wondering? Don't make me sick. Does 'worrying and wondering' make it okay to bother me!? Do any of you know me? No, and I don't nor want to know you. You can go to hell and rot there for all I care. You just want to hear about my sorry life, so that you will be able to say, 'I'm glad I'm not him' to yourselves and have a good story to tell to your friends and family."

He looked around slowly, making most of the boys back away even more. "I will tell you, but only so that you'll stop prying about it and annoying me. My grandmother's not dead, you imbeciles. She's in the hospital, but definitely not dead. Where ever did you get that idea from? Grow a brain, will you!"

Tobi stepped forward. "Poor Sasori-san, he must be very confused because of his grandmother's death!"

"Confused?" Again he laughed, sarcastically. "I am not confused, you idiot. In fact, I think you are. Even though this is completely pointless to say, I will be visiting her this afternoon, so now, leave. Me. Alone!"

A deafening silence followed. Nobody made a move.

"I hope you all got the message." Sasori said, panting slightly from his outburst. "I despise you. Every single one of you."

He ignored everyone but the teachers the rest of the day. When other students tried to talk to him, he'd continue with what he was doing as though they weren't there. At all.

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

"How was school today, Sasori-chan?"

He looked up from the window, at his grandmother. "It was… fine."

She frowned, her eyebrows becoming a straight line and her forehead wrinkling. "They bothered you, didn't they?"

"No." he lied. "What makes you think that?"

His grandmother sighed. "You are a terrible liar. To me, that is. I can see right through all of them. I've known you all your life."

"So you have. What did the doctors say?"

She pushed herself into a more upright position. "They said I can go home tomorrow. Thankfully it was just a panic attack, not a heart attack - although they called it something else… Acute… Mi… Mo… My…"

"Acute Myocardial infarction."

"That's it, that's the term. You're still so young, your memory is a lot better than mine. You know, in my days they told me that my memory was truly a gift from above. But now I'm all old and slowly my body is breaking down. I do not think I will live for another twenty years. Probably not even ten. It really won't be that long until I-"

"Don't." Sasori said curtly, though still using his normal monotone tone of voice. She fell silent, sighed again and looked into his eyes as he muttered softly, "…Don't say that."

A small smile appeared on her face as she grasped his hand with her own and held it. "I won't say it." Chiyo said, squeezing his hand for reassurance. "You shouldn't have to worry about me like this."

He didn't reply - instead he looked at their hands, and the corners of his lips lifted, almost forming a smile.

"Now, you never told me about your piano lessons, Sasori-chan."

_**Line.Pagebreak.Ignore it.**_

End of Chapter

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**Author's Note: Sorry for the long time no update, I got stuck a lot, was busy, tired, everything. A big thank-you to my beta, Ivvy-Sama, my mom, and others who helped me with this chapter. Any suggestions for what could happen next are appreciated - reviews and constructive criticism are too. I want to improve my writing. :)**


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